USDA needs to improve how it collects, tracks and shares information on foreign investment in U.S. farmland, the Government Accountability Office wrote in a report released on Jan. 18.
Marc Selinger
Marc Selinger, Assistant Editor, is the congressional reporter for Export Compliance Daily, which he joined in December 2023. He previously wrote for a variety of defense publications, highlights of which included covering the Paris and Farnborough (UK) air shows and touring the Israeli defense industry. His first full-time journalism job involved reporting on local government, schools and police news for a community newspaper in Michigan. He is on X at @marcselinger and on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/marc-selinger-315089173/.
The top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Western Hemisphere Subcommittee urged the Biden administration on Jan. 18 to end Cuba’s “baseless, extremely harmful” designation as a state sponsor of terrorism.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said Jan. 18 that he remains committed to passing two China-related investment measures that failed to become law last year.
The Bureau of Industry and Security believes its export controls are adequate to protect all 19 of the critical and emerging technology categories identified by the White House as important to national security (see 2202090016), a BIS official said on Jan. 17.
The State Department gathered an undisclosed “group of countries” last week to “strategize” on ways to curb the supply of parts to Iranian drones, a department official said Jan. 17.
Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., urged USDA and the Treasury Department to review how Chinese businessman Chen Tianqiao was able to buy almost 200,000 acres of Oregon farmland in 2015 without disclosing the purchase to the federal government.
Rep. Jake LaTurner, R-Kan., called on two key members of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. to prevent Cnano Technology USA, a subsidiary of China-based Cnano Jiangsu Technology Co. Ltd., from opening a manufacturing plant for electric vehicle battery parts in Johnson County, Kansas.
The House on Jan. 12 passed a bill aimed at helping the Treasury Department find terrorists, Russian oligarchs and corrupt government officials.
Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois and Tim Kaine of Virginia announced Jan. 9 that they plan to oppose a provision in the Biden administration’s fiscal year 2024 supplemental appropriations request that would waive congressional oversight requirements for U.S. funding provided to Israel under the Foreign Military Financing program.
The Senate Banking Committee held a hearing Jan. 11 to renew its push for congressional passage of the Fentanyl Eradication and Narcotics Deterrence (FEND) Off Fentanyl Act, which would use sanctions and anti-money laundering measures to counter the illicit fentanyl supply chain that is blamed for tens of thousands of American deaths annually.