The Biden administration, which in January paused pending decisions on liquefied natural gas exports to allow it to review criteria for approving LNG export applications, plans to release the results of its study in “mid-December,” an Energy Department official said Dec. 4.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Jim Risch, R-Idaho, said Dec. 5 that he will seek to enhance implementation of sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act when he becomes the panel’s chairman in January.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., introduced a bill Dec. 3 to impose sanctions on Chinese police departments that operate in the U.S. or try to do so.
Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, introduced a bill Dec. 3 that would require sanctions against those who commit "genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity" in Sudan.
Sens. Peter Welch, D-Vt., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., asked the Government Accountability Office Dec. 3 to report to Congress on whether U.S. restrictions on artificial intelligence exports are adequate to protect national security and human rights.
The House approved a bill by voice vote Dec. 3 that is designed to protect American companies that are sued in federal court for complying with U.S. sanctions and export controls.
Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., said Dec. 2 that his bill to expand sanctions on Syria's Bashar Assad regime seems to have stalled in Congress but that he hopes to get it enacted into law next year if not this month.
Companies have experienced a loss of business and other negative financial effects as a result of the Bureau of Industry and Security’s October 2022 and October 2023 rules restricting exports of advanced computing chips and chipmaking equipment (see 2310170055), the Government Accountability Office said in a new report released Dec. 2.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Jim Risch, R-Idaho, and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., a senior member of the committee, urged the Biden administration Dec. 2 to impose sanctions in response to the Republic of Georgia’s violent crackdown on peaceful protesters in recent days.
Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., a proponent of imposing more sanctions in response to Sudan’s civil war, said Nov. 29 that he plans to meet the week of Dec. 2 with Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be secretary of state, to discuss several topics, including Sudan.