News: Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) is pressing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to immediately change Pentagon policies that allow non-U.S. citizens to access the department’s computer systems.
In a letter to Hegseth, Cotton demanded that foreigners be immediately barred from accessing DoD systems. It’s the latest development amid the fallout from a stunning ProPublica investigation in July about Microsoft’s use of China-based engineers to maintain those systems.
Hegseth vowed in response that foreign engineers “should NEVER be allowed to maintain or access DoD systems.”
Cotton is now pushing for an immediate policy change, and we’re told that the Arkansas Republican plans to file an amendment to the annual defense authorization bill – a must-pass measure – that would codify a ban on foreigners’ access to those systems. Cotton also plans to introduce this as a standalone bill next month.
Here’s an excerpt from Cotton’s letter:
“Foreign persons should never be allowed to access DoD systems, regardless of whether a U.S. citizen is supervising. The Department… has the authority to immediately make these policy changes. I urge you to do so now.”
The backstory. Cotton has been pushing Hegseth in recent weeks to take steps to mitigate the resulting cybersecurity risks. Hegseth responded by declaring that China “will no longer have any involvement in our cloud services, effective immediately.”
But Cotton has continued to sound the alarm over China’s potential access to Pentagon systems, including through other long-term contracts. As we reported last week, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, is making a similar push.
In his letter, Cotton also asked Hegseth to brief him about “any vulnerabilities that have been discovered in the department’s cloud contracts and software services and any mitigating actions.”
The staunch China hawk. Cotton, who also serves as the No. 3 Senate Republican leader, sent a separate letter Wednesday to the Intel Corporation over CEO Lip-Bu Tan’s alleged ownership stakes in Chinese semiconductor and advanced-manufacturing firms.
The Senate is scheduled to begin consideration of the NDAA on the Senate floor in September when lawmakers return to Washington from the summer recess.
