Quick Hits

*** The Federal Communications Commission began collecting data from U.S. telecommunications carriers to track Huawei and ZTE gear in their networks. The relatively inexpensive equipment has been used mostly by cost-conscious smaller and rural carriers. The FCC adopted a rule that prevents companies from using the Universal Service Fund to buy Huawei and ZTE products because of national security concerns.

*** Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, weighed in on the lawsuit slowing down the Defense Department's $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud program.

"Where the JEDI contract is concerned, we have the president once again inserting himself into the debate and causing a problem," Smith said in opening remarks at a hearing featuring defense chief Mark Esper and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "Now I don't know exactly what happened, but unquestionably a judge decided that because the president specifically apparently said that he didn't want the contract to go to Amazon because he has some beef with Jeff Bezos, we are now slowed down in our ability to properly defend this country."

*** At the same hearing, Smith and ranking member Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) complained about the administrative transfer of $3.8 billion in defense money for the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The transfer, "undercuts any argument about the need for resources within the Department of Defense. And it also undercuts the congressional process," Smith said. Thornberry predicted that "the result of this will be greater restrictions on the department's ability to move money around to meet changing needs, and the country will suffer as a result."