The purchase ban changed reported spending
A September 22 GAO report examined implementation of the federal prohibition on certain telecommunications and surveillance equipment or services from five named Chinese companies and their affiliates. From the law’s fiscal 2019 implementation through fiscal 2025, GAO found no federal obligations to the five companies in three of the seven fiscal years.
As of March 2026, nearly 90% of companies holding active federal contracts in fiscal 2025 publicly represented that they did not use covered equipment from the five companies. A representation is a compliance statement; it is not the same as a physical inspection of every product or supplier.
| Measure | GAO finding |
|---|---|
| Named companies | 5, plus affiliates and subsidiaries |
| Implementation period reviewed | FY2019–FY2025 |
| Fiscal years with no direct spending | 3 of 7 |
| Active contractors representing no covered use | Nearly 90% |
| New GAO recommendations | 4; all open at publication |
The weakest control was government-wide sharing
GAO found that GSA uses automated processes to remove prohibited items from its Multiple Award Schedule and that DOD and GSA provide search tools for checking contractor representations. Together, those two agencies accounted for nearly two-thirds of fiscal 2025 contract obligations.
But they did not broadly share information about subsidiaries, affiliates and supply-chain methods with other agencies. GSA, for example, planned to expand customs-data use to identify goods’ origins. Keeping that experience inside two major buyers limits smaller agencies preparing for current and future bans, including semiconductor restrictions.
Direct spending and supply-chain exposure are different tests
The original contribution is to place the favorable spending result beside the unresolved implementation gap. Zero direct obligations in a fiscal year shows the government did not report buying from the five named parent companies; it does not prove every component and affiliate throughout a contractor’s supply chain was clear.
Likewise, the roughly 90% representation rate is encouraging but incomplete. GAO did not publish a denominator on the summary page, so this newsroom did not convert the remaining share into a company count or label those contractors noncompliant.
Recommendations, response and limits
GAO issued four recommendations: GSA and DOD should periodically share affiliate information and coordinate broader lessons through appropriate mechanisms, including CISA channels. Both agencies concurred; all four recommendations were open when published.
The audit supports a finding about information-sharing controls, not a claim that a named contractor knowingly violated the law or that prohibited equipment was discovered in an agency network. Waivers were also legally available for a period after implementation.