WASHINGTON, D.C. — FCC Chairman Brendan Carr on Thursday announced that he has established a new Council for National Security within the Commission.
The Council is designed, in the FCC’s words, to “leverage the full range of the Commission’s regulatory, investigatory, and enforcement authorities to promote America’s national security and counter foreign adversaries, particularly the threats posed by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Chinese Communist Party (CCP).”
Serving as the CNS’s first Director is Adam Chan, who joined the Commission in January for a role that all but cemented the CNS’s creation, as he was tapped as Carr’s senior advisor on all national security matters.
Chan joined Carr’s office from Boyden Gray PLLC, where he was an associate. Before that, he served as a law clerk to the Hon. Judge Steven J. Menashi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Before clerking, he worked as a National Security Legal Fellow for the United States House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party. Chan also interned at the DOJ’s National Security Division, an in the office of then-Commissioner Carr.
Chan is also a Non-Resident Fellow at Columbia Law School’s National Security Law Program.
“Today, the country faces a persistent and constant threat from foreign adversaries, particularly the CCP,” Carr said. “These bad actors are always exploring ways to breach our networks, devices, and technology ecosystem. It is more important than ever that the FCC remain vigilant and protect Americans and American companies from these threats. Because these threats now cut across a range of sectors that the FCC regulates, it is important that the FCC’s national security efforts pull resources from a variety of FCC organizations.”
The Council will have a three-part goal: to reduce the American technology and telecommunications sectors’ trade and supply chain dependencies on foreign adversaries; to mitigate America’s vulnerabilities to cyberattacks, espionage, and surveillance by foreign adversaries; and to ensure the U.S. wins the strategic competition with China over critical technologies, such as 5G and 6G, AI, satellites and space, quantum computing, robotics and autonomous systems, and the Internet of Things.
The Council will be comprised of representatives from eight Bureaus and Offices within the FCC, fostering cross-agency collaboration and information sharing. The Council will facilitate the Chairman’s ability to implement a comprehensive national security agenda and facilitate the Commission’s engagement with national security partners across the Executive Branch and in Congress.
The creation of the National Security Council met the approval of Democratic FCC Commissioner Anna Gómez. Saying the Commission plays a vital role in safeguarding national security by protecting critical communication networks from cyber threats and foreign interference, she supports “any effort to bring together expertise within the FCC, in partnership with other federal agencies and international partners, to strengthen our country’s defense against evolving security risks.”
Gómez added that she looks forward to working with her colleagues “to ensure that politics does not interfere with our mission to safeguard our communications infrastructure, protect consumers, and ensure the resilience of our nation’s networks against emerging threats.”
