Secure Space Act of 2025
Click any stage to learn more about the legislative process.
Would prohibit the FCC from granting satellite licenses, U.S. market access for foreign-licensed satellites, or earth station authorizations to companies on the agency's national security risk list — such as Huawei and ZTE — or their corporate affiliates.
The bill extends the existing Covered List security framework, already used to restrict domestic telecommunications equipment, into the satellite sector — closing a potential gap that could allow foreign-linked entities of concern to access U.S. satellite infrastructure.
What this bill would do
What it would do
The bill would amend the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act of 2019 to bar the FCC from issuing any satellite license — covering both geostationary and nongeostationary orbit systems — to entities that produce or provide communications equipment or services on the FCC's "Covered List" of national security risks, or to their affiliates. The same prohibition would extend to petitions for U.S. market access for foreign-licensed satellites and to authorizations to use individually licensed or blanket-licensed earth stations (ground-based radio stations that communicate with satellites). The FCC would be required to issue rules implementing the new prohibition within one year of enactment.
The bill would apply only to licenses, market-access petitions, and earth station authorizations granted on or after the date of enactment; it does not revoke licenses or authorizations already held by any entity. It relies on the Covered List the FCC already maintains, rather than creating a new designation process.
Key provisions
- 1Would bar the FCC from granting geostationary or nongeostationary orbit satellite licenses to any entity on the Covered List or its affiliates.
- 2Would prohibit the FCC from granting U.S. market access petitions for foreign-licensed satellite systems to covered entities or their affiliates.
- 3Would prohibit granting individually licensed or blanket-licensed earth station authorizations to covered entities or their affiliates.
- 4Would require the FCC to issue implementing rules within one year of enactment.
- 5Would apply the prohibition only to new grants made on or after the date of enactment, not retroactively to existing licenses.
Who would be affected
Companies on the FCC's Covered List — including Huawei Technologies and ZTE — and their corporate affiliates, who would be categorically ineligible for new satellite licenses or earth station authorizations. Foreign satellite operators seeking U.S. market access and affiliated with such entities would also be blocked. The FCC would bear new rulemaking and licensing-review responsibilities.
Why it matters
Covered List entities would be permanently barred from entering or expanding in the U.S. satellite sector, preventing them from gaining control over communications infrastructure that federal regulators have deemed a national security risk. Companies or foreign operators with any affiliate relationship to listed entities — even indirect ones — could be denied U.S. satellite market access regardless of the specific service offered.
What would change
Changes to existing law
Amends Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act of 2019 (47 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) (Sec. 2(a))
Inserts new Section 10 prohibiting FCC from granting satellite licenses, U.S. market access, or earth station authorizations to Covered List entities or their affiliates.
Agencies directed to act
Effective dates
- Prohibition on granting licenses, market access, or earth station authorizations to covered entities
- FCC must issue implementing rules
Funding and costs
Congressional Budget Office estimate
CBO estimates that H.R. 2458 would have no significant effect on the federal budget, as its costs would be negligible relative to current FCC spending levels.
H.R. 2458 would prohibit the FCC from issuing licenses or granting market access to entities that control satellite systems or Earth stations posing a national security risk. CBO found that any incremental administrative costs to the FCC from implementing these restrictions would be small and covered within existing appropriations. The bill would have no significant effect on direct (mandatory) spending or federal revenues. CBO identified no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined under the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act.
How implementation would work
The FCC would have up to one year after enactment to issue rules implementing the prohibition. In practice, the agency would screen new satellite license applications, market-access petitions, and earth station authorization requests against the existing Covered List and check for affiliate relationships using the affiliate definition from the Communications Act of 1934. No new designation mechanism is created; the bill relies on the FCC's existing Covered List determinations. The prohibition would be self-executing for new applications filed on or after enactment, with the rulemaking formalizing procedures.
Legislative status & sources
Latest action
Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
Official CRS summary
Show the CRS summaryHide the CRS summary
This bill prohibits the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from granting satellite licenses or earth station authorizations, including U.S. market access for foreign-licensed satellites, to specified foreign entities of concern and their affiliates. (Earth stations, also commonly known as ground stations, are earth-based radio stations that communicate with satellites. A grant of U.S. market access permits one or more foreign-licensed satellites to communicate with one or more U.S.-licensed earth stations.)
Specifically, the FCC may not grant a satellite license, an earth station authorization, or market access to any entity, or an affiliate thereof, that produces or provides communications equipment or services deemed to pose an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States. (The FCC maintains a list of such equipment and services, known as the Covered List. Providers of such equipment and services include, for example, Huawei Technologies Company and ZTE Corporation.)
Legislative subjects
Broadcasting, cable, digital technologies; Internet, web applications, social media; Licensing and registrations; Science, Technology, Communications; Spacecraft and satellites; Telephone and wireless communication
Committee report
H. Rept. 119-65