A bipartisan group of four House members introduced a bill last week they said would close an export control loophole that has allowed China to access advanced U.S. computing chips remotely.
The Federal Maritime Commission has been encouraging carriers to have a better relationship and more transparency with shippers, FMC Chairman Daniel Maffei said during a hearing held by the House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation on April 30. Maffei said that this issue stems from the lack of transparency surrounding the Red Sea-related surcharges imposed by carriers due to Houthi attacks on commercial ships (see 2401290052).
Republicans are proposing to repeal the Corporate Transparency Act, saying the 2021 law has overburdened small businesses.
Reps. Ann Wagner, R-Mo., and Jared Golden, D-Maine, introduced a bill May 1 that would require the State Department to review and consider terminating Qatar’s status as a major non-NATO ally. Their proposal is companion legislation to a bill that three Republicans introduced in the Senate last month, citing Qatar's hosting of Hamas leaders (see 2404100064).
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Jim Risch, R-Idaho, called on the Biden administration April 30 to revoke its new arms transfer policy, saying it duplicates human rights safeguards in existing law.
Reps. Chris Smith, R-N.J., and Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., introduced a bill last week that would expand the list of sanctionable offenses for human rights violations against Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang region. The added offenses would include forced sterilization, forced abortions, forced organ harvesting and seeking the forced deportations of Uyghurs from third countries. The proposed Uyghur Genocide Accountability and Sanctions Act would also authorize secondary sanctions on business and government entities that aid human rights abuses in Xinjiang. Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., introduced a similar bill last year (see 2305310024).
Reps. Dina Titus, D-Nev., and Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., introduced a bill last week that would require the Biden administration to review whether 44 Azerbaijani officials should face Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act sanctions following the “ethnic cleansing” of Armenians from the Artsakh area and the “violent repression” of political opposition.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Roger Marshall, R-Kan., urged the Biden administration April 29 to counter Russia’s use of cryptocurrency to evade U.S. financial sanctions and buy high-tech weaponry for its war against Ukraine.
Sens. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., in a letter called on President Joe Biden to increase enforcement of Iran sanctions, especially in the lucrative oil and gas sector, to reduce the revenue Tehran has available to “fund aggression and terrorism in the Middle East and beyond,” the lawmakers said last week.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., urged the Commerce Department last week to immediately revoke all export licenses to China’s Huawei, saying the Bureau of Industry and Security is allowing a foreign adversary's company to obtain too much advanced U.S. technology.