Bill stops federal broadband money for foreign-owned cable suppliers.
H.R. 9541 — FIREWALL Act · Filed by Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) · 2 cosponsors · Introduced Jun 30, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
The bill bans the FCC and NTIA from giving federal money to certain companies. Those companies buy fiber-optic cable from countries of concern. The ban starts 90 days after the law passes. It applies to cable purchases made after that date. The list of countries of concern comes from defense law.
Who it affects
Broadband companies, rural cooperatives, tribal groups, and state and local programs get federal money. They must find cable suppliers from countries not on the concern list. Broadband projects may slow down or cost more if compliant suppliers are scarce or expensive.
One thing to notice
The bill does not say which countries are off-limits. That list comes from defense law and can change without Congress voting again. Agencies cannot make exceptions, even if suppliers run out or cost too much.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
2 cosponsors: 1 Democrats, 1 Republicans.
- Jun 30, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jun 30, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Energy and Commerce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 1 reports from Jun 2026 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $620,000 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 31 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 0% of bills with any report.
Gus Bilirakis, who sponsored the bill, received $885,250 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- United States Telecom Assn — $620,000 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- FCC — The Federal Communications Commission, the agency that regulates phone and internet services.
- NTIA — The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, a government office that helps expand broadband.
- fiber-optic cable — Thin glass wires that carry internet signals very fast over long distances.
- countries of concern — Nations the government lists as threats to U.S. security or interests.
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,288 characters) on Aug 12, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,707 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 17, 2026 · page rendered 2026-09-23.
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