The ROUTERS Act is a bipartisan Senate bill proposing a federal study of national-security risks in certain consumer routers and modems. It does not, in the sources available through September 28, 2026, require consumers to stop using or replace their routers.
What is the ROUTERS Act?
The Removing Our Unsecure Technologies to Ensure Reliability and Security Act, or ROUTERS Act, was introduced in the Senate as S. 244 on January 27, 2025, by Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, and Sen. Ben Ray Luján, a New Mexico Democrat. The related House measure is H.R. 866. The Senate committee report describes S. 244 as a measure directing the Commerce Secretary to study national-security risks associated with consumer networking equipment.
What would the bill require?
The bill’s central requirement is a study—not an immediate product restriction. The Commerce Secretary, acting through the Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information, would examine national-security risks and cybersecurity vulnerabilities involving specified consumer devices. No later than one year after enactment, the Secretary would submit the study’s results to the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee.
Devices and supply-chain connections in scope
The described scope includes consumer routers, modems, and devices that combine a modem and router. It covers devices designed, developed, manufactured, or supplied by persons owned by, controlled by, or subject to the influence of a covered country. That test is broader than asking only where a device was assembled: the bill’s description also refers to who designs, develops, or supplies it and to ownership, control, or influence.
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Which countries are covered?
The country descriptions differ across the available legislative materials. Blackburn’s January 27, 2025, announcement lists the People’s Republic of China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela. A Congressional Budget Office summary describes the bill as covering organizations owned or controlled by North Korea, China, Russia, or Iran. These summaries do not present identical lists or wording. If the bill advances, its operative definition in the latest legislative text would determine the final scope.
What security concerns prompted the proposal?
Blackburn said that routers susceptible to infiltration by foreign actors, including China, could expose the country to serious danger. Luján described the measure as a step toward ensuring everyday internet devices do not threaten national security or consumer privacy. Those statements explain the sponsors’ rationale; they are not findings that every device connected to a covered country is compromised.
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The study would examine concerns including unauthorized infiltration, compromise of home or small-business network traffic, consumer privacy exposure, and dependence on supply chains linked to foreign adversaries. The cited legislative materials do not provide an independent incident-rate statistic or a quantified total of compromised routers, so the proposal should not be read as proof of how often these risks have occurred.
What is the bill’s status?
The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee reported S. 244 with amendments on June 2, 2025. The Senate calendar dated June 24, 2026, lists the measure under its router-and-modem study title and records that committee action. The official materials available through September 28, 2026, do not establish that the bill became law. Accordingly, the one-year reporting deadline would run from enactment, not from the introduction date or the committee’s action.
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Does the bill mean you must replace your router?
No immediate replacement requirement appears in the cited CBO description or the bill’s study mandate. Those sources also do not describe an immediate ban on foreign-made routers or a required consumer recall. A device’s country of manufacture alone is not enough to conclude from this proposal that it is unsafe: the described scope concerns devices connected to persons meeting the bill’s ownership, control, or influence tests, and the proposal calls for a study of risks and vulnerabilities.
If the measure advances, the details to watch are the final covered-country and ownership definitions; whether it remains a study or adds procurement, labeling, import, or replacement rules; the agency duties and reporting deadline; the treatment of modem-router combination devices; and any privacy or cybersecurity safeguards imposed on manufacturers or agencies.
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