Two House oversight committee leaders are looking into Credit Suisse’s compliance with Russian sanctions after the investment firm reportedly asked investors to destroy documents about yachts and private jets owned by its clients. The Credit Suisse directive, reported by the Financial Times in February, “raises significant concerns that it may be concealing information about whether participants” are “evading sanctions” imposed by the U.S. and other countries against Russia, said Reps. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, and Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., chairman of the Subcommittee on National Security.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai will testify at the House Ways and Means Committee March 30 at 10 a.m. The hybrid virtual and in-person hearing is on the topic of the Biden administration's trade policy agenda. She will testify at the Senate Finance Committee March 31st at 10 a.m.

Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, introduced the Preventing Labor Union Slowdowns (Plus) Act, which would revise the National Labor Relations Act to define a labor slowdown by port unions as an unfair labor practice. It also would change the labor law to say that labor unions' negotiations against port automation are an unfair labor practice.

A new Senate bill could require the government to regularly review whether Russia’s major oil companies should be added to the Entity List. Under the bill, introduced last week by Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., the interagency end-user review committee would be required to review every 90 days whether Rosneft, Surgutneftegas, Lukoil, Gazprom and other Russian oil companies warrant placement on the Entity List. “We MUST make completely clear to Russian oil companies that the U.S. stands for freedom; and they will be completely black listed and stay that way until it is proven to Congress they deserve to do business in our freedom-loving nation,” Scott said in a statement.

The Russia and Belarus Financial Sanctions Act, clarifying that foreign subsidiaries of U.S. financial institutions must comply with American sanctions against Russia and Belarus, passed out of the House Financial Services Committee March 17 on a voice vote. The Nowhere to Hide Oligarchs' Assets Act, which gives the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network more access to records so that they can "detect Russian oligarchs who are participating in money laundering techniques to hide their money, avoid scrutiny, and evade our sanctions," passed out of the same committee on a 26-23 party-line vote.

Sen. Jim Risch and Rep. Mike Simpson, both Idaho Republicans, led a bicameral, bipartisan letter asking the Biden administration to push Mexico to comply with its agreements to allow the import of fresh U.S. potatoes. The letter from 34 members of Congress, including the Senate Finance Committee's top Democrat and Republican, said Mexico says it needs additional site visits in the U.S. before restoring market access.

The Commerce Department should tighten export restrictions on China’s top chipmaker to prevent it from importing sensitive semiconductor equipment and exploiting a U.S. export control loophole, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas said. The lawmakers, who voiced similar concerns to Commerce last year (see 2103190005), said in a March 17 letter to Commerce that its export control licensing policies for Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation are “ineffective” and are denying less than 1% of export applications to sell technology to the company.

Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., and other Republicans asked the administration to use all available tools to help the union that represents dock workers and the port authorities on the West Coast to reach contracts on time this summer. Braun and his colleagues wrote, "We have heard from a number of stakeholders with concerns that a breakdown in negotiations ... will lead to even more disruptions and shipping delays at a time in which our nation’s ports are reporting record backlogs. ... Any delays caused by failed negotiations will have a drastic cost and impact on our nation’s supply chain. This cost will be felt by not only retailers and others that rely on ports for their business, but also by millions of American workers, farmers, and ranchers, who may face short-term shutdowns at their factories or barriers to shipping their products to market.”

The U.S. should tighten export controls against the Beijing Genomics Institute and its subsidiaries to prevent it from importing U.S. genomic and semiconductor technologies, the House’s Republican-led China Task Force said in a letter to National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. Although the Commerce Department’s Entity List has two of BGI’s subsidiaries, the lawmakers said several more should be added to restrict the company’s “access to technology, data, and money.”

Republican senators criticized President Joe Biden's choices not to levy sanctions on Russia before last month's invasion of Ukraine, and questioned why the sanctions now aren't tougher, during a press conference March 16 at the Capitol.