Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., reintroduced a bill that would require the Federal Trade Commission, in consultation with the Commerce Department, to write a report on the effects of foreign investment in U.S. pharmaceutical supply chains. The senators said their bill would provide information that would help the U.S. reduce its dependence on potentially unreliable imports, including ingredients used in generic drugs. The United States Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Review Act was referred to the Senate Banking Committee.
Three Senate committee chairs urged the Biden administration last week to sanction the Amana organization, an Israeli settlement group in the West Bank, for fomenting violence against Palestinian civilians.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., introduced six joint resolutions of disapproval last week that would block the sale of more than $20 billion in U.S. military equipment to Israel, including bombs, fighter jets, ground vehicles, mortar rounds and tank ammunition.
Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and John Cornyn, R-Texas, introduced a bill last week that they said would ensure courts cannot vacate previously authorized permits for liquefied natural gas projects.
Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., introduced bills last week aimed at curbing U.S. investment in China.
A hearing about the Time to Choose Act, a bipartisan bill that would ban consultants and other service providers from working both with the U.S. government and Chinese-owned companies, Senate Homeland Security Committee ranking member Rand Paul, R-Ky., said he agreed with a witness who said it could create a slippery slope.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which has held two hearings this year on U.S. computing chips ending up in Russian weapons, plans to hold more hearings on the subject, its chairman said last week.
More than 60 Senate and House Democrats on Sept. 27 called on the Biden administration, including the Bureau of Industry and Security, to take more steps to stop the illegal trafficking of U.S.-made guns to Haiti.
The House voted 243-174 late Sept. 25 to approve a bill that would impose property-blocking sanctions on Chinese Communist Party leaders for committing human rights abuses, harassing Taiwan or undermining Hong Kong's autonomy.
Both chambers of Congress on Sept. 25 approved extending until Dec. 20 the soon-to-expire Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act. The 2019 law requires the president to sanction Chinese and Hong Kong officials responsible for human rights violations in Hong Kong (see 2409230017). The extension is included in a short-term government funding measure, or continuing resolution, that the House and Senate passed and that President Joe Biden plans to sign into law.