Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., criticized the Biden administration April 25 for reportedly planning to sanction a battalion of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for alleged human rights violations against Palestinians in the West Bank (see 2404220047). Rubio said in a statement that the designation would “stigmatize the entire IDF” and “encourage” terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah and their Iranian government backers.
Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, and four Democratic senators urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to reverse a district court judge’s ruling that the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) is unconstitutional.
Correction: Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said at an April 17 Senate Finance Committee hearing on the administration's trade agenda that a whistleblower found “unsanitary conditions and rampant labor abuses” in the Indian shrimp industry, asking whether CBP would take action (see 2404170074).
Four congressional committee leaders urged the Biden administration on April 19 to consider sanctioning Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and its leader, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commonly known as Hemedti, for human rights violations.
An investigation by the House Select Committee on China found that U.S. financial institutions facilitated the investment of $6.5 billion last year in 63 Chinese companies that the U.S. government has “blacklisted or otherwise red-flagged” for advancing China’s military capabilities or supporting its human rights abuses, the committee said April 18.
Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., announced late April 17 that she supports a newly modified House proposal that would ban TikTok in the U.S. unless China’s ByteDance divested the popular social media application.
Although all members of the House Ways and Means Committee supported a bill renewing the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program, the bill proceeded to the House floor on a split bipartisan vote of 17-24 as Democrats unsuccessfully called to include an extension of the Trade Adjustment Assistance for Workers program, which lapsed in 2022.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, and three other House Republicans urged the State Department on April 17 to permanently stop waiving sanctions for certain types of nuclear cooperation with Iran.
The House of Representatives voted 410-13 on April 16 to approve a bill that would impose property-blocking and visa sanctions on people in Syria who produce and traffic the stimulant drug Captagon.
The two top lawmakers on the House Select Committee on China on April 16 asked the State Department to “intensify and elevate its global diplomatic efforts” to ensure the EU passes an agreement to ban imports of goods made with forced labor.