Senate Republicans last week reintroduced a bill that would condition the removal of U.S. sanctions against Venezuela on “specific democratic progress.” The Venezuelan Democracy Act, first introduced in December (see 2212210005), would maintain sanctions on Venezuela “until there is a transition to democracy” and would require the U.S. to assess whether President Nicolas Maduro's regime should be designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization or a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. The administration also would have to submit quarterly reports to Congress on “specific licenses granted” to people and companies “engaging with sanctioned persons,” along with a report on “foreign persons doing business with sanctioned persons in Venezuela.”

Democrats introduced a bill this week that would build on the Biden administration’s increased emphasis on human rights concerns when adjudicating foreign arms sales. The Safeguarding Human Rights in Arms Exports Act of 2023, introduced in the House by Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., and in the Senate by Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., would codify aspects of the administration's recently revised Conventional Arms Transfer policy and would increase congressional oversight of arms sales.

Senators this week reintroduced a bipartisan bill that would require the administration to form an “effective sanctions strategy” that would be triggered if China invades Taiwan. The Taiwan Protection and National Resilience Act, led by Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Gary Peters, D-Mich., would require the departments of the Treasury, Defense, State, Commerce and others to submit a report to Congress describing a “comprehensive sanctions strategy” that the U.S and allies could adopt in response to an invasion.

The State Department should impose “mandatory sanctions” against Iran under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act in response to the country’s “significant defense transactions” with Russia, three Republicans said in a March 29 letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Iran and Russia are building a “full-fledged defense partnership,” the letter said, which has led to “concerning advances in Iran’s military capabilities” and helped Russia sustain its war in Ukraine.

The top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee applauded the recent U.S. sanctions against Syria but said more should be done. “It is good to see the U.S. and UK working together to counter the Assad regime and Hezbollah’s dangerous role in narco-trafficking,” Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said in a press release this week, referencing the designations imposed by both countries against Syrian military officials and other people and companies involved in smuggling amphetamines (see 2303280026). “The administration needs to keep up the pressure to counter this growing threat, including by making sure countries normalizing with Assad understand they are working with a drug lord.”

A new Republican-backed bill in the Senate and House could lead to U.S. sanctions against senior Argentine government officials. The bill, led in the Senate by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and in the House by Rep. Maria Salazar of Florida, would require the president to investigate five Argentine officials for corruption: Argentina’s Vice President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner; her son, former lawmaker Maximo Kirchner; Vice Minister of Justice Juan Martin Mena; Sen. Oscar Isidro Jose Parrilli; and Carlos Alberto Zannini, the Argentina Treasury's lead prosecutor. If the president determines they “meet the criteria for corruption sanctions, the bill mandates the imposition of those sanctions,” according to Cruz’s news release.

Reps. John Garamendi, D-Calif., and Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., unveiled new legislation this week that they said will build on last year’s Ocean Shipping Reform Act (see 2303240068) by further expanding the Federal Maritime Commission's authority and “crack down” on China’s “attempts to influence America’s supply chain.” The Ocean Shipping Reform Implementation Act, introduced March 29, would block U.S. ports from using Chinese state-sponsored logistics software, allow the FMC to investigate foreign shipping exchanges to “preempt improper business practices," authorize the commission to “streamline data standards” to aid maritime freight logistics and more.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee this week advanced two sanctions bills, including one that could lead to new human rights sanctions against Haiti and another that would prevent the administration from removing sanctions against Cuba until it meets certain requirements.

The House unanimously passed a bill this week that could lead to new export controls on U.S. goods and technologies that China may be using to develop and support undersea communication cables. The Undersea Cable Control Act would require the State Department to create a “strategy” to “eliminate the availability to foreign adversaries of goods and technologies capable of supporting undersea cables,” and calls on the administration to establish “bilateral or plurilateral agreements” with allies to prevent China and other “adversaries” from acquiring these items.

The Biden administration should impose new sanctions against the Bolivian government for recent human rights violations, Republicans said in a letter to the White House last week. The government has arrested political rivals, and its “absence of a robust opposition, civil society and independent media” provides an “open door for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and other authoritarian regimes to further impose their strategic interests on the South American country and the region,” said the letter, signed by six lawmakers, including Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Carlos Gimenez, both of Florida. It’s “imperative that the United States hold accountable those Bolivian human rights abusers that violate the fundamental freedoms of Bolivia’s opposition candidates, and their supporters.” The White House didn’t comment.