At the urging of ARRL The National Association for Amateur Radio®, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is expected to exempt radio amateurs from foreign adversary reporting requirements. These rules would have applied to citizens of the listed countries (see below), including those living in the United States, who hold or are applying for an FCC license.

On January 8, 2026, the FCC released a draft Report and Order (R&O) [GN Docket No. 25-166; PDF) expected to be adopted at its January 29 meeting that will, as requested by ARRL, exempt radio amateurs from requirements that would have applied reporting requirements to every FCC-authorized radio amateur “subject to the jurisdiction or direction of a foreign adversary.” This included “(a)ny individual, wherever located, who is a citizen of a foreign adversary or a country controlled by a foreign adversary, and is not a United States citizen or permanent resident of the United States.” Foreign adversaries as defined in the draft R&O are: (1) China, including Hong Kong and Macau; (2) Cuba; (3) Iran; (4) North Korea; (5) Russian Federation; and (6) “Venezuelan politician Nicolás Maduro.” 

The draft liberally cites ARRL’s comments:

“35. We agree with the National Association for Amateur Radio (ARRL) that, while there is a need to protect national security where entities are ‘engaged in commerce by providing networks, services or equipment to the American public, where there is the possibility of sensitive information being surreptitiously accessed.’ [sic] … As ARRL notes, ‘[a]mateur radio licensees not only do not sell or provide any communications service, network, or equipment to the public, but in fact they are prohibited from doing so by both international and domestic law.’ … The risk to national security of Foreign Adversary Control over these licenses is minimal due to the lack of connection to any of the nation’s communications networks used by the public. We also agree with ARRL that this reasoning applies to similar services where licenses are held by individuals (e.g., GMRS, Commercial Radio Operators), as well as other licenses and authorizations that lack sufficient connection to commercial wireless communications networks in the United States. Furthermore, the Personal Radio Services—a category that encompasses over 1.6 million unique, mostly individual licensees—operate in shared spectrum bands for hobbyist and safety purposes, posing little threat to national security. Similarly, we include antenna structure owners that voluntarily register their towers in Schedule C because they are likely to be individuals or companies that lack sufficient connection to commercial communications networks. Given the sheer number of licensees and authorization holders in this group, the drain on Commission personnel and resources to process the collections and attestations for each individual licensee would far outweigh the little benefit to the public or the agency of doing so.”