House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., and two other Republican lawmakers have asked Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to provide documents, communications and a staff-level briefing to help them understand the Energy Department’s role in the Biden administration’s temporary pause on pending decisions for liquefied natural gas exports. In a letter last week, the lawmakers said they’re concerned the pause will damage U.S. national security and energy security and that it may have been made for political reasons. The administration announced the pause in January (see 2401260070), saying it wants to review criteria for approving LNG projects, including the impact on climate change.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has appointed Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., to chair the House Select Committee on China when its current chairman, Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., leaves Congress next month, Moolenaar and the speaker’s office announced March 25.

The Senate voted 51-47 on March 23 to defeat a proposal from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, that would have prohibited the Biden administration from waiving certain sanctions against Iran.

The omission of funding for outbound investment restrictions in the recently enacted Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024, or second minibus, is designed to prevent the Biden administration from blocking U.S. investors from taking over Chinese companies, the House Appropriations Committee said last week.

Reps. Darin LaHood, R-Ill., and Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, both members of the House Ways and Means Committee, announced last week that they have sent two letters to the Biden administration calling for more action to promote U.S. biofuel exports.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said March 21 he’s “deeply concerned” the Biden administration has “politicized” anti-corruption sanctions by using them against foreign officials it perceives as “conservative,” such as former Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei, and not using them against “leftist" ones.

Sens. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and John Fetterman, D-Pa., introduced a bill March 21 that would prohibit the sale of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve to “foreign adversaries,” including China, Cuba, Iran, Russia, Syria and Venezuela. The proposed “Banning Oil Exports to Foreign Adversaries Act” seeks to prevent “anti-democratic regimes” from winning public auctions that the Energy Department holds to sell excess oil from the reserve, Ernst’s office said.

The Ocean Shipping Reform Implementation Act, which gives the Federal Maritime Commission power to investigate allegations against shipping exchanges, passed the House March 21 by a vote of 393-24. It also directs the FMC to establish standards for price indexes published by shipping exchanges, such as the Shanghai Shipping Exchange.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee voted 28-22 this week to approve a bill that would impose property-blocking sanctions on Chinese Communist Party leaders for committing human rights violations.

The House on March 19 passed a bill that would impose property-blocking sanctions on foreign persons who undermine the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended the Bosnian War.