{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/chairman-cotton-to-hegseth-current-dod-agreements-and-practices-fail-to-account-for-threat-of-china", "Chairman Cotton to Hegseth: Current DoD Agreements and Practices Fail to Account for Threat of China", "2025-07-24", "2025", "2025-07", "Republican", "Senate", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", "cotton", "https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\n\nContact: Caroline Tabler or Patrick McCann (202) 224-2353\n\nJuly 24, 2025\n\nChairman Cotton to Hegseth: Current DoD Agreements and Practices Fail to Account for Threat of China\n\nWashington, D.C. \u2014 Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, today sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth requesting additional information about agreements and practices that currently fail to account for the growing threat of Communist China. This letter follows one sent by Senator Cotton last week about reports of China-based contractors for Microsoft potentially having access to sensitive military data.\n\nIn part, Senator Cotton wrote:\n\n\u201cWhile I applaud your actions, I am concerned that the Department is hampered by agreements and practices unwisely adopted by your predecessors, including contracts and oversight processes that fail to account for the growing Chinese threat.\u201d\n\nFull text of the letter may be found here and below.\n\nThe Honorable Pete Hegseth\n\nSecretary of Defense\n\nU.S. Department of Defense\n\n1000 Defense Pentagon\n\nWashington, DC 20301\n\nDear Secretary Hegseth:\n\nI write to commend the Department\u2019s prompt response to last week\u2019s inquiry about Microsoft\u2019s use of Chinese engineers to provide services for Department of Defense (DoD) systems. Your vow that \u201cChina will no longer have any involvement in our cloud services, effective immediately\u201d and plans for a two-week review of current cloud contracts underscore the urgency required to address this security risk.\n\nWhile I applaud your actions, I am concerned that the Department is hampered by agreements and practices unwisely adopted by your predecessors, including contracts and oversight processes that fail to account for the growing Chinese threat. As we learn more about these \u201cdigital escorts\u201d and other unwise\u2014and outrageous\u2014practices used by some DoD partners, it is clear the Department and Congress will need to take further action. We must put in place the protocols and processes to adopt innovative technology quickly, effectively, and safely.\n\nTo inform Congress as we work with you to close the vulnerabilities in the DoD supply chain, I respectfully request the following information by August 15, 2025.\n\nThe results of the two-week review, including but not limited to:\n\nDetails on what services Chinese engineers provided\n\nWhat information or data was shared with Chinese engineers\n\nMechanisms Chinese engineers used to access, maintain, or service DoD systems, such as screen sharing, remote management, or instructions to run scripts\n\nWhat information, if any, was recorded or documented by DoD when Chinese engineers were working with DoD systems\n\nHow often Microsoft or other providers that utilized this digital escort model conducted self-audits and the results of all such self-audits\n\nAny discovery of potential security incidents or malicious events that have already occurred or are likely to occur\n\nAll security classification guides provided to Microsoft or other contractors under the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC) program\n\nAny plans to implement a DoD-wide review of contracting practices and DoD guidance to prevent a contractor from leveraging loopholes that place DoD systems at risk\n\nI look forward to working with you on this important matter.\n\nSincerely,\n\nTom Cotton\n\nUnited States Senator\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T14:40:33Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/chairman-cotton-to-hegseth-current-dod-agreements-and-practices-fail-to-account-for-threat-of-china"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4952009078115225, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}