The Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Russell Vought wrote a letter to Vice President Mike Pence, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and eight other members of Congress asking for a two-year delay of a ban that prohibits U.S. government contractors from doing business with Chinese-telecommunications company Huawei, in an effort to give companies more time to comply with the legislation.
As part of the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act signed by President Trump, companies that do business with Huawei are barred from providing services to the U.S. government, citing national security reasons. The ban is set to take place in a year and one month from now.
“The Administration believes, based on feedback from impacted stakeholders, that this additional preparatory work will better ensure the effective implementation of the prohibition without compromising desired security objectives,” acting director Vought wrote. “The Administration shares Congress’ goal of strengthening protections for the networks and information of Federal agencies, as reflected in the important bipartisan effort that led to the passage of the Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act.”
Last month, American companies like Google and Microsoft pulled Huawei’s access to Android hardware and software services after the Department of Commerce placed the company on the Entity List. Companies have noted to Commerce that the restrictions place stress on their businesses and bottom lines.
If OMB’s proposal is approved, the ban would take place in three years and one month.
