{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-to-hegseth-congress-and-department-of-defense-should-work-together-to-protect-systems-from-non-us-citizens", "Cotton to Hegseth: Congress and Department of Defense Should Work Together to Protect Systems from Non-U.S. Citizens", "2025-08-07", "2025", "2025-08", "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\nAugust 7, 2025\n\nCotton to Hegseth: Congress and Department of Defense Should Work Together to Protect Systems from Non-U.S. Citizens\n\nWashington, D.C. \u2014 Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth urging him to ban non-U.S. citizens from accessing Department of Defense systems.\n\nIn part, Senator Cotton wrote:\n\n\u201cForeign persons should never be allowed to access DoD systems, regardless of whether a U.S. citizen is supervising. The Department, particularly the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security, has the authority to immediately make these policy changes. I urge you to do so now.\"\n\nFull text of the letter may be found here and below.\n\nAugust 6, 2025\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 continue our dialogue on actions necessary to eliminate the Chinese Communist Party\u2019s threat and influence on Department of Defense (DoD) systems and supply chains. I appreciate the ongoing actions you are taking to eliminate Chinese engineers\u2019 access to DoD systems, including the efforts to identify other \u201cdigital escort\u201d programs.\n\nThe language in current DoD policy guidance allows non-U.S. citizens to access DoD systems, which I believe should be addressed immediately. Foreign persons should never be allowed to access DoD systems, regardless of whether a U.S. citizen is supervising. The Department, particularly the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security, has the authority to immediately make these policy changes. I urge you to do so now.\n\nWhile you reform DoD policy, I will work with my colleagues to codify these actions in law to ensure changes made under your leadership are protected. Congress must prohibit non-U.S. citizens from accessing DoD systems under any circumstances and mandate DoD to revise its policies to comply with this prohibition.\n\nUnfortunately, we continue to learn more about Microsoft\u2019s business dealings in China. In addition to the information requested in my previous letters on this matter, I request a briefing from DoD about any vulnerabilities that have been discovered in the Department\u2019s cloud contracts and software services and any mitigating actions by September 5.\n\nI look forward to continuing our work together on this important matter.\n\nSincerely,\n\nTom Cotton\n\nUnited States Senator\n\ncc:\n\nMr. Bradley Hansell\n\nUnder Secretary of Defense for Intelligence & Security\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T14:57:50Z"]], "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/cotton-to-hegseth-congress-and-department-of-defense-should-work-together-to-protect-systems-from-non-us-citizens"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9706178680062294, "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"}