January 23, 2020

Mr. Robert O’Brien         
Assistant to the President  
  for National Security Affairs    
The White House   
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. 
Washington, D.C. 20500

Mr. Lawrence Kudlow
Assistant to the President
   for Economic Policy
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20500

Mr. Robert Blair
Special Representative for International
   Telecommunications Policy
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Messrs. O’Brien, Kudlow, and Blair:

On behalf of the more than one million members and supporters of Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), I write to encourage you to continue your efforts to retain America’s leadership role in technology research and development worldwide, particularly fifth generation (5G) network technologies and future wireless generations. 

CAGW urges you to ensure that Chinese-manufactured parts do not enter the supply chain for 5G networks being constructed in the United States.  At the same time, CAGW urges you to continue to permit U.S. companies to sell their non-national security-related products to China.  I am concerned that should the U.S. decide to decouple our technology research and development from China and restrict the ability of technology companies to share non-national security related R&D with standard-setting bodies as a result, the nation’s leadership role in innovation will falter.  Such decoupling would hinder the ability of U.S. companies to compete in the global market, create separate but equal rival networks that would not coexist well, and harm innovation due to the inability to share non-national security-related technologies between the two countries.

As international standard-setting bodies meet to develop the criteria for 5G networks, the U.S. must have a seat at the table so that our interests are protected, and the U.S. standard can be considered as the global standard by these international bodies.  Due to the inclusion of Chinese technology companies like Huawei in these organizations, U.S. companies may find themselves unable to participate without violating export control regulations.  It is critical that the standards governing these new technologies and adopted worldwide are developed with U.S. leadership and built on a U.S.-invented foundation.

I appreciate your consideration of these comments and welcome your reply. 

Sincerely,

Tom Schatz
President, CAGW

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