Senators to Trump: pump the brakes on Huawei licenses

In the letter provided to Reuters and sent to President Trump today, the senators asked that he refrain from issuing the licenses until the White House submits to Congress “a report outlining specific criteria for determining whether or not the approval of any license poses a national security threat.” The letter was signed by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Republican Senator Tom Cotton. On Wednesday, SFGate reported that an unnamed industry official said 300 new license applications had been received, with roughly 150 processed; of that, half had been approved, with the other half denied. The Commerce Department, which has not confirmed the number of new licenses granted, did say in an emailed statement to SFGate that the licenses were being granted to companies with "limited and specific activities which do not pose a significant risk to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States."