The measure had bipartisan support in Congress and was expected to become law given the Trump administration's eagerness to label Huawei a security threat.

There are lingering concerns about the severity of this claimed threat. The US has been reluctant to provide public evidence that the Chinese government has used Huawei equipment for surveillance. American officials have claimed that Huawei has secret access to carrier backdoors, but it's not clear they were designed for that purpose or that the company has abused them. Huawei has denied misusing backdoors, and insisted that there are tight controls that put responsibility in the hands of carriers. This may help officials feel better about the security of US telecom systems, but it's not clear there will be a practical improvement.