House Passes Kean’s Bill to Secure America’s Leadership in Undersea Cable Infrastructure

Contact: Riley Pingree

(September 3, 2025) WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yesterday, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 2503, the Undersea Cable Control Act, by voice vote. The bill now moves to the U.S. Senate for further consideration.

Introduced by Congressman Tom Kean, Jr. (NJ-07) earlier this year, this legislation aims to prevent China and other foreign adversaries from acquiring goods and technologies that support the construction, maintenance, and operation of undersea cables. 

“Undersea cables are the lifeline of global communications, carrying data quickly and securely across continents,” said Congressman Kean. “This infrastructure stretches across the world’s oceans, allowing you to video-call a friend who’s abroad or stream a foreign movie, while also supporting billions of dollars in economic activity each year for the U.S. While our nation maintains a competitive edge in the deployment and development of these cables, China seeks to expand its influence over one of the world’s most important communications networks. We must protect these cables from foreign interference, sabotage, or control by our adversaries. I am grateful to my colleagues in the House for passing this important legislation and look forward to its consideration in the U.S. Senate and its eventual signing into law.”

Background: 

Undersea cables are essential to global communication networks, with 99 percent of all transoceanic digital communications, such as internet data, traveling through these fiber optic cables. This technology contributed $649 billion to the U.S. economy in 2019 alone and supports transactions exceeding $10 trillion daily within the American financial sector. 

In the past few years, as China continues to finance its state-run companies and their infrastructure projects globally as a part of the Belt and Road Initiatives, Chinese companies like Huawei and China Telecom have built undersea cables on every continent except Antarctica. While the United States maintains a lead over China’s own fiber optic technology, the prolific installments of undersea cables by Chinese companies have raised economic and security concerns globally. 

 The full bill text can be found HERE.

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