american companies and their suppliers. zte buys products from the likes of qualcomm, broadcom, intel and a lot of other smaller optical companies and you ve got companies, just an example in massachusetts, you ve got a company named akssia. they hold goods to zte yesterday. 30% of their revenue. understanding that these companies aren t in your district, aren t in your state, do you have any concerns about the negative impact on u.s. businesses as a result of zte going out of business? i always think we need to take into account the impact on u.s. businesses, but i think we most of all have to look out for u.s. national security interests and as you laid out in your remarks there, way back in 2012, the house intelligence committee after getting testimony from national security experts concluded on a bipartisan basis that zte and huawei, another
for giving good drivers the discounts they deserve. a place with 24-hour valet service. and upholstery classes. a place where seniors get the care they need in the comfort of home. home instead senior care. the white house is warning u.s. senators not to overstep their authority as the senate considers a vote to block the president s decision to ease sanctions on chinese tech giant
states senate in the coming week. the commerce department had the right penalty back in april when they announced that because zte had not only violated the u.s. sanctions policy against north korea and iran once, but they did it repeatedly and then when they were caught, they said they were going to come clean and instead, they engaged in a big cover-up and did it again. that s why the commerce department did what it did and that would be the penalty today except for the fact that president trump then tweeted out that he wanted to help zte and help help save jobs in china and so go ahead. here s what the white house said and the view of the white house is this, the view of the white house is that they think this deal ensures that zte pays a pretty penny, right, a billion bucks plus 400 million in escrow for this violation, but they say that it also prevents harm to
telecommunications company posed a threat, a risk to u.s. national security and that hasn t changed. as recently as february, you had the director of the fbi, the head of the cia, all the other intelligence folks say, it s a bad idea to allow zte or huawei to be doing business in the united states. the federal trade commission has recommended that u.s. telecom companies not do any business with zte. so this is a national security issue which is why another part of the amendment that senator cotton and i proposed would prohibit u.s. government agencies from purchasing phones or equipment from zte. let me ask you about north korea. in the wake of the summit that president trump had with kim jong-un in singapore, do you believe that america is safer today from the north korean threat than it was on monday? i do not believe that the threat has changed and here s why. because north korea still has
zte. why is it this matter? zte had been banned from buying american technology after it violated u.s. sanctions by doing business with north korea and iran. then a 2012 congressional report found zte was a security threat because of its efforts to extract sensitive information from american companies. this is serious stuff. joining me now is democratic senator chris van hollen of maryland. nice to have you, senator. great to be with you. you ve been very outspoken about your opposition to the deal that the commerce department struck. it finds zte a billion dollars. it makes them put $400 million in escrow, should they violate sanctions again. your republican counterpart senator tom cotton of arkansas said, quote, the only fitting punishment would be to put zte out of business in the united states. is he right? he is right and that s why i teamed up with him to offer the amendment which is now included in what we call the manager s package and i m confident that that s going to p