Review – S 244 Introduced - ROUTERS Act

Last month Sen Blackburn (R,TN) introduced S 244, the Removing Our Unsecure Technologies to Ensure Reliability and Security (ROUTERS) Act. The bill would require the Department of Commerce to conduct a study on the national security risks of routers and modems manufactured in China. No new funding is authorized by the legislation.

The bill is very similar to S 4572 that was introduced by Blackburn in June of 2024. No action was taken on that bill. The language in this bill is more similar to the reported version of HR 7589 that was passed in the House on September 9^th, 2024 by a voice vote. While the bills described above are technically different, they would all have required the same actions to be taken.

Moving Forward

Both Blackburn and one of her two cosponsors {Sen Lujan (D,CO)} are members of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that there may be sufficient influence to see the bill considered in Committee. I see nothing in this bill that would engender any organized opposition to the provisions of the bill.

 

For more information on the provisions of the bill and a discussion about the process by which the bill could be passed in the Senate, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-244-introduced - subscription required.