Israel should strengthen its foreign direct investment screening efforts to better protect its sensitive technologies, especially investments from China, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said, speaking May 1 before the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. He said he is “glad” Israel “has put into place a process to review foreign investors” but “strongly encourages Israel to further strengthen its oversight of foreign investment, particularly Chinese investment.”

Congress should amend shipping regulations to give the Federal Maritime Commission jurisdiction over certain fees assessed by railroads under ocean bills of lading, more than 70 trade groups, including the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America, said in a May 2 letter to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The groups said those charges should be billed through the contracting carrier and be subject to demurrage and detention invoicing requirements that were included as part of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act.

Senate Republicans reintroduced a bill last week that could place more restrictions on scientific or research collaboration between U.S. and Chinese entities. The Preventing PLA Acquisition of United States Technology Act, which was first introduced in the Senate May a year ago and also will soon be introduced in the House, would block certain U.S. “covered” entities from working with any Chinese “entity of concern” in “any scientific research or technical exchange” relating to the development of technologies that China is prioritizing as part of its military-civil fusion strategy, the lawmakers said in a news release. The bill, which refers to the People’s Liberation Army, also would prevent partnerships between Chinese “entities of concern" and private American companies that receive federal funding.

A new House bill could allow the Federal Maritime Commission to block certain “anticompetitive” agreements between ocean carriers and marine terminal operators without first having to secure a federal court order. Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., introduced the bill, called the Ocean Shipping Competition Enforcement Act, after FMC Commissioners Max Vekich and Carl Bentzel asked him to “make this critical change in federal law,” Garamendi said.

A letter signed by all the freshmen Democrats in the House of Representatives lauds President Joe Biden's new stance on trade.

Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said companies should make sure they comply with national security-related trade restrictions following the Bureau of Industry and Security's record $300 million fine against Seagate Technology for violating export controls against Huawei (see 2304190071). “Our national security interests are being threatened by Communist China, and companies need to take this situation seriously by following the law,” said Wicker, who led Senate Republicans two years ago in producing a report that urged BIS to penalize Seagate for violating the controls (see 2110260040).

The Biden administration should impose new sanctions on people involved in human rights abuses and violence stemming from fighting in Sudan, the top two lawmakers on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said April 17.

Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., reintroduced a bill last week that could lead to new export controls and sanctions against China. The China Technology Transfer Control Act, first introduced during the last Congress, calls on the president to impose restrictions on “any covered national interest technology or intellectual property” exported from the U.S. to China or by a U.S. person to China. It also would require the Commerce and State departments to submit a report to Congress within 90 days of the bill’s enactment “assessing” whether any covered technologies should be controlled under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations or Export Administration Regulations.

Rep. Nathaniel Moran, R-Texas, introduced a bill that would direct the administration to impose sanctions on any foreign person who "knowingly engaged in significant corruption in Mexico," whether through bribery, corruption in government contracts, money laundering, intimidation of governmental or nongovernmental corruption investigators, or involvement in the "production, sale, or distribution of illicit fentanyl or fentanyl analogs." The text of the bill, released April 10, said the president would have the flexibility not to impose sanctions if the sanctions are deemed harmful to U.S. national security interests.

The Government Accountability Office should review illegal U.S. firearms exports to the Caribbean, three lawmakers said last week. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., along with Reps. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., and Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, said they are particularly concerned about illegal trafficking of U.S. weapons to Haiti, adding that America is the “principal source of weapons being used by criminal gangs” on the island.