Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, applauded the Treasury Department’s new sanctions this week against the Myanmar state-owned Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (see 2310310028), saying the measures will “disrupt the junta’s access to the U.S. financial system and curtail its ability to commit further human rights violations.”

Two House members from California asked the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to talk to Turkey about its new retaliatory tariffs on American almonds. In an Oct. 31 letter, Reps. John Duarte (R) and Jim Costa (D), called the tariffs "burdensome" and said they give Australia, Spain, Uzbekistan and Iran an "unjustified competitive advantage over US almonds in the Turkish market."

The Biden administration should warn Mexico that it will be hit with sanctions if the country continues to “circumvent U.S. policy” by selling oil to Cuba, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said in a post on Medium last week. Rubio cited shipping data in a Reuters report that showed Mexico had surpassed Russia in providing oil to Cuba, although Mexico has said the oil is for humanitarian purposes.

The Treasury Department should “urgently” implement the administration's executive order on outbound investments (see 2308090066), including by adopting a broad definition of the three technology sectors covered under the order, said Reps. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., the chairs of the House Select Committee on China. The lawmakers also called for the U.S. to do more to convince allies to put in place their own outbound investment screening tools and to pursue additional restrictions on outbound passive investments, including in index funds.

The U.S. should be doing more to sanction people responsible for the recent “wave of coups and violence” in West Africa and the Sahel, Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., said during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting this week. Cardin, committee chair, noted that five countries in the region have experienced coups since 2020 -- Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Chad and Niger -- and the U.S. should be holding parties in those nations responsible.

The House Select Committee on China's leaders said a recent announcement that China would restrict exports of graphite, which is used in electric vehicle batteries, shows how urgent it is to pass legislation to respond to China's actions.

The Commerce Department should add China-affiliated public security bureaus and others to the Entity List for their involvement in a “mass DNA collection project” in Tibet, chairs of the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China said in a letter this month to the Biden administration. They said Chinese officials in Tibet have likely purchased DNA kits and replacement parts from American biotechnology company Thermo Fisher Scientific and are using those products for “political identification,” racial profiling and other “egregious” human rights abuses.

The U.S. was wrong to suspend certain sanctions against Venezuela last week, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said, adding that the Biden administration gave in to the Nicolas Maduro-led government’s “empty promises for insignificant electoral reforms.” McCaul, who chairs House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the administration's decision to “imprudently” grant “sweeping sanctions relief” to the country’s oil, gas and gold sectors will “fill the regime’s coffers and allow Maduro to ensure next year’s presidential elections, which have yet to be scheduled, are neither free nor fair at the expense of the Venezuelan people fighting for democracy.”

More than 100 Senate and House members this week asked the Biden administration to explain the steps it’s taking to address Hamas’ and other terrorist groups’ use of cryptocurrency to raise money and evade sanctions. In an Oct. 17 bipartisan letter to the Treasury Department and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, the lawmakers pointed to reports that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad collectively raised over $130 million in crypto between August 2021 and June 2023, and asked if the administration needs more tools to “address the national security threats posed by illicit use of crypto by terrorist organizations.”

The leaders of the House Select Committee on China are seeking information from venture capital company Sequoia on its investments in Chinese technology companies after the company announced it planned to split from its Chinese affiliate by March. In an Oct. 17 letter sent to Sequoia executives, Reps. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., said that even though the company’s split from Sequoia Capital China is a “step in the right direction,” questions remain about whether the move will “staunch future flows of American capital to problematic” Chinese companies.