The Biden administration is expected to further scale back its upcoming outbound investment screening executive order to focus on “increasing transparency” for certain outbound investments in China instead of potentially blocking investments in several sectors, Politico reported Feb. 28. The report said the EO may still block certain investments in China’s advanced semiconductor industry, but it will “likely not block money from flowing to other parts of China’s high-tech economy,” including the artificial intelligence, quantum computing and biotechnology industries.

The State Department is seeking public comments on information collections overseen by the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls. One deals with approval requests for its manufacturing license agreements, technical assistance agreements and other agreements; another involves the maintenance of records by DDTC registrants; a third involves the annual brokering report; and the last relates to the agency’s “Brokering Prior Approval” license. Comments are due March 30.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. will be especially active this year, BakerHostetler lawyers predicted in a webinar hosted by the law firm last week. Lawyer Scott Jansen said he believes “there's going to be actual CFIUS enforcement” despite the committee not issuing an enforcement penalty since 2019. “We believe that there is a great chance that there'll be serious penalties in 2023,” Jansen said, adding that he expects CFIUS to continue to prioritize China-related transactions.

The U.S. is considering publicizing intelligence it believes shows China is deciding whether to send weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine, The Wall Street Journal reported Feb. 22. The discussions within the Biden administration came before Feb. 25 U.N. Security Council meeting and a “number of closed-door appeals” to China coordinated among NATO members, the report said. Other Western countries in recent weeks have also “picked up on” intelligence that China may begin supplying weapons to Russia, but “it appears that China hasn’t yet made a final decision,” the report said.

A federal government payment website, Pay.gov, will be offline Feb. 26 from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. for scheduled maintenance and upgrades, the State Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls said. "All Pay.gov services will be unavailable during the deployment window, including paying Registration fees," DDTC said.

The State Department approved a potential $670 million military sale to the Netherlands, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said Feb. 16. The sale includes “High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launchers” and related equipment. The principal contractor will be Lockheed Martin.

The State Department this week released a set of best practices for nations to follow on the responsible use of artificial intelligence in militaries. The agency said any “military use of AI capabilities needs to be accountable,” adding that states also should consider how to implement these best practices “in the context of their exports of military AI capabilities.”

The Bureau of Industry and Security is seeking public comments on the “effectiveness” of its licensing procedures for exports and reexports of agricultural goods to Cuba, the agency said in a notice this week. BIS will use the comments as it prepares a biennial report to the Congress on its Cuba-related export licensing, per the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000, which requires BIS to report on licensing procedures for the period Oct. 1, 2020, to Sept. 30, 2022. The report must include information on the number and types of licenses applied for, the number and types of licenses approved, the average amount of time elapsed from the license’s filing date until its approval date, and a “description of comments received from interested parties,” BIS said. Public comments, due March 20, should be “as specific as possible,” the agency said.

The State Department approved a potential $250 million military sale to Kuwait, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said Feb. 14. The sale includes the “planning, integration, implementation, and maintenance of a Medical Information System for” the Kuwait Military Medical Command. The principal contractor will be Cerner Corp.

The U.S. goods movement supply chain is in a “much better place” than it was in October and might be undergoing a “pre-pandemic resetting,” said Stephen Lyons, the Transportation Department’s port and supply chain envoy. Lyons, speaking during the Feb. 15 meeting of the Commerce Department’s Advisory Committee on Supply Chain Competitiveness, attributed a “large degree” of the improvements to weakened demand. “When you look at shipping times, when you look at freight costs, when you look at basic confidence and reliability in systems,” he said, “that has improved dramatically relative to where we were a year ago.”