U.S. Rep. Ross Spano (R-FL) signed on to co-sponsor a bill designed to protect the transportation infrastructure from espionage and intellectual property theft.
The bill, HR 6917, the Airport Infrastructure Resources (AIR) Security Act, would prohibit federal airport improvement funds from being used in the purchase of passenger boarding bridges made by companies that have violated the intellectual property rights of the United States.
Introduced by Reps. Ron Wright (R-TX) and Marc Veasey (R-TX), the bill is intended to keep the Chinese Communist Party from spying on American airline passengers, and to prevent China from any further power grab, Wright said.
Spano said he was proud to co-sponsor the bill.
“Not a dime of U.S. taxpayer dollars should be given to Chinese owned firms or Chinese subsidized companies bidding on our critical aviation infrastructure projects,” Spano said. “China and its communist government have proven time and time again that they are only out for themselves and have no reservations in stealing our intellectual property and carrying out cyber espionage against our country. I am proud to join my colleagues in introducing this bill to secure our aviation security.”
Citing China’s alleged responsibility for failing to stop the spread of COVID-19, Wright said he wanted to do what he could to prevent American tax dollars from going to Chinese-owned companies.
Wright also cited the efforts by CIM-Tianda, a Chinese-owned company with a history of cyber espionage and industrial espionage against the United States, in trying to sell its airplane passenger boarding bridges to U.S. transportation hubs like Houston, Dallas, Miami, and Boston.
The national security threat China and other adversaries pose to our transportation industry cannot be underestimated,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said. “I’m grateful to Congressmen Wright and Veasey for introducing this legislation to ensure government grants aren’t used to subsidize the purchase of airport infrastructure from hostile governments.”