Sen. Bernie Moreno announced today that his bipartisan Connected Vehicle Security Act of 2026 has passed unanimously out of the Senate Commerce Committee, setting the legislation up for consideration by the full Senate. Co-sponsored by Sen. Elissa Slotkin, the bill would ban Chinese vehicles and connected components from U.S. markets.
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Moreno introduced the bill in April as a defense of the American auto industry from what they called the existential threat of predatory Chinese automobiles. It prohibits the import, sale, and operation of vehicles manufactured in China, or any other country of concern, and bans the use of Chinese-developed connected vehicle technologies, including software and data systems, on American roads.
The bill has broad support in the Senate and in the House from Republicans and Democrats.
“The Chinese Communist plan for automobiles is all too familiar: undermine U.S. industry through state subsidies and unfair labor practices, flood our market with Chinese goods, and then use those products to spy on Americans. Our bill puts an end to their scheme,” said Sen. Tom Cotton.
House Select Committee on China Chairman, Rep. John Moolenaar, said, “The American auto industry is vital for jobs, national security, and the future of America’s manufacturing base.”
Moreno cheered the bill’s passage out of Committee today.
Proud to say my bipartisan bill with @ElissaSlotkin to ban Chinese cars from US markets just passed out of Senate Commerce UNANIMOUSLY.
Thank you to Chairman @tedcruz for all your work on this bill. Now let’s pass into law. The American auto industry depends on it. #CVSA pic.twitter.com/ZJnQp94rsf
— Bernie Moreno (@berniemoreno) July 22, 2026
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“What we’re doing is we’re preventing a massive national security threat,” Moreno said. “Now, I don’t want anybody listening to this to worry about their automobile. But your automobiles today are roving electronic devices. They can be remote accessed by you, through an app where you can unlock your car, start your vehicle, turn your vehicle off. But when you have companies that are domiciled or controlled by foreign entities of concern, that means that those governments, including, of course, the CCP, if we were to allow those cars to come in here, could take over the steering, the braking, and the acceleration of your vehicles.”
“That obviously is an intolerable national security risk. So much so that the CCP recognizes this and they actually ban Teslas in China from being near their sensitive military installations, knowing that these cars are taking videos and sending videos back to the manufacturer,” he continued. “In the case of China, of course, those manufacturers, by Chinese law, must share that data and information with the central government.”
“The other piece of it is an economic threat. As I know, and my colleague from Michigan will attest, any car company in America, whether it’s Ford, or General Motors, Toyota, Honda, can compete with any car company on earth. But they can’t compete with an entire country that’s set on destroying the Western auto industry. In Europe, they just reported this morning that 34 percent of all new vehicles sold in Europe, not in China, in Europe, were Chinese automobiles. That is a staggering number and it’s happened over a very short period of time,” Moreno said.
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In a press release, Moreno reiterated his opposition to the Chinese auto industry.
“China’s auto industry was not built to compete, it was built to destroy American manufacturing, gut the middle class, and undermine our national security,” he said. “For decades, D.C. globalists propped up Chinese businesses—now it’s time for Congress to stop this cancer before it spreads through the American auto market.”
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump’s leadership and bold policies, America’s economy is back on track.
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