A bill reintroduced last week could allow any House member to force a debate on the House floor over certain contested U.S. arms sales. The Arms Sale Oversight Act, which has been introduced in previous years, would align House procedures for reviewing major arms sales with certain existing Senate procedures and give House members the ability to discuss those proposed sales if the House Foreign Affairs Committee doesn’t debate them. The bill was introduced by Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., and co-sponsored by Reps. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., and Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.
A bill was introduced in the House that could lead to new export controls on genetic mapping technology and sanction entities in China and elsewhere involved in certain genetic mapping efforts. The bill would specifically direct the Commerce Department to deny licenses for those exporting these items to certain countries unless the exporter can submit documentation to the government "to demonstrate by clear and convincing evidence that, if the license is approved, the technology will not be used for human rights abuses or by an entity that has engaged in human rights abuses."
A new House bill would require the U.S. to maintain certain sanctions against Iraq even if the administration ends the “applicable declared national emergency” that authorizes those sanctions. The legislation was introduced Aug. 11 by Rep. Elijah Crane, R-Ariz., and referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, asked the Kyrgyz Republic to “swiftly” investigate allegations that the country’s government has helped Russia evade international sanctions. In an Aug 8 letter to President Sadyr Japarov, Menendez said Kyrgyzstan has “dramatically expanded its import-export business with Russia” since Russia launched its war against Ukraine, and said Kyrgyzstan’s “lack of enforcement or worse -- complicit facilitation of trade with Russia in products that implicate sanctions, such as drones, aircraft parts, weapon accessories, and circuitry -- is reportedly enabling Russia to evade international sanctions.”
Congress needs to enact stronger export controls legislation to complement the Biden administration’s outbound investment restrictions against China unveiled last week (see 2308090066 and 2308100045), said House Foreign Affairs Indo-Pacific Subcommittee Chairwoman Rep. Young Kim, R-Calif. Kim said she’s “glad” the administration is “acting to restrict U.S. investment of critical technologies developed in China,” and she said the measure “should not be treated as a silver bullet.”
After the administration reported on its strategy to disrupt narcotics trafficking linked to the Syrian regime, including its sanctions against Samer Kamal al-Assad and Khalid Qaddour, a key drug producer and facilitator, respectively, of captagon production in Syria, two members of the House of Representatives introduced a bill directing the administration to impose sanctions on more Syrian players in the production and sale of the amphetamine-like stimulant.
Citing a Financial Times report that Chinese artificial intelligence developers are evading controls on advanced semiconductors by using cloud services, members of the House introduced a bill to stop those practices, called Closing Loopholes for the Overseas Use and Development of Artificial Intelligence (CLOUD AI). The bill was introduced last month, and its text published this week.
The Congressional Research Service this month issued an updated version of its overview of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. The report notes Congress is proposing legislation to expand CFIUS jurisdiction over certain land purchases and potentially add the USDA secretary as a permanent member of the committee (see 2307280052 and 2307180022). CRS listed several items Congress should be considering, such as how the Treasury Department will implement any “new agriculture-related responsibilities in regulation and practice”; how “sufficient are CFIUS’ current authorities” now that five years have passed since the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act was enacted; and how the Commerce Department’s process of identifying emerging and foundational technologies for export controls is “facilitating or hindering CFIUS reviews of transactions related to such technologies.”
President Joe Biden signed the U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st-Century Trade First Agreement Implementation Act into law Aug. 7 but said there are constitutional concerns with language that would require the U.S. trade representative to provide negotiating texts to the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees "in the midst of negotiations," and would also preclude USTR from presenting its text to Taiwan while Congress is reviewing it.
Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., one of the shrinking number of members of Congress who advocate for engaging with China rather than punishing it, recently published a white paper of his views on how to manage competition with China, how to use both offensive and defensive measures to compete with China, how to improve U.S. governance and competitiveness, and how to identify areas of cooperation.