The Senate on Feb. 9 confirmed Neil MacBride, President Joe Biden’s nominee to be general counsel for the Treasury Department. MacBride, a former federal prosecutor who will advise Treasury on sanctions work, said during his nomination hearing last year that he will “ensure that the department’s regulatory actions comply with the laws Congress enacts.” He also said he knows “firsthand the importance” of the Office of Foreign Assets Control, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and other Treasury agencies.
Alaska's two Republican senators, Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski, introduced a bill that would ban the import of Russian seafood products. Russia doesn't import U.S. seafood products anymore, in retaliation for sanctions Western nations imposed after Russia invaded Crimea, part of Ukraine, a region that it later annexed. The bill, which the senators announced Dec. 11 but introduced earlier this week, is called the U.S.-Russian Federation Seafood Reciprocity Act.
Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and 27 Republican colleagues, introduced a bill that would require the administration to impose Magnitsky Act sanctions if any member or person associated with the International Olympic Committee supported "a gross violation of internationally recognized human rights" against any Olympic or Paralympic Winter games participant. However, the president can choose not to impose sanctions if he determines that a waiver is in the country's national security interests. The text of the bill, which was published Feb. 10, says that participants aren't just athletes -- they can be spectators, members of the press, "government and private officials ... and persons involved in economic activity related to the Games."
The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America is telling Congress that some of the language about Non-Vessel Operating Common Carriers (or NVOCCs) and "Ocean Transport Intermediaries" in the Ocean Shipping Act does not make sense, because these intermediaries do not control cargo placement aboard a vessel, and most of the time, they do not set detention and demurrage charges.
Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., told a virtual audience Feb. 9 hosted by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations that there are more members of Congress who want to punish China or decouple from its economy than there are those who see themselves as trying to salvage the relationship.
The American Nuclear Infrastructure Act of 2021 could help make U.S. nuclear exporters more competitive, especially when competing with China, said Maria Korsnick, CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute, speaking during a Feb. 9 Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing. She said the bill would “empower” the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to “focus on nuclear energy export and innovation activities.”
Senators said they are continuing to negotiate the details of a comprehensive Russia sanctions bill Feb. 8 and hope to reach an agreement quickly. Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, declined to say what the final sticking points are, but said they need to be cleared up soon. “We’re running out of runway here,” Risch told reporters on Capitol Hill, “and it’s really important that we get this done.”
Republican senators urged the Biden administration to get Senate approval for any potential nuclear deal with Iran, or risk Congress overturning the deal at the start of the next administration. The lawmakers, including Jim Risch of Idaho and Marco Rubio of Florida, the top Republicans on the Senate’s Foreign Relations and Intelligence committees, respectively, said the administration is required to seek Senate approval under the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015. Any deal reached with Iran not ratified by the Senate “is subject to being reversed, and indeed will likely be torn up, in the opening days of the next Presidential administration, as early as January 2025,” more than 30 senators said in a Jan. 7 letter to the White House. The lawmakers said they will use their “full range of options and leverage available to United States Senators to ensure that you meet those obligations,” and the “implementation of any agreement will be severely if not terminally hampered if you do not.” The White House didn’t comment. The administration last week restored an Iran-related sanctions waiver that it hopes will bring the sides closer to a deal (see 2202070035), which could ease a range of U.S. sanctions against Iran.
Senators introduced a companion version of the House’s Ocean Shipping Reform Act, which would look to hold ocean carriers accountable for declining exports and other unfair shipping practices. The bipartisan bill -- introduced Feb. 3 by Sens. John Thune, R-S.D., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. -- would also require carriers to submit quarterly reports on total import and export tonnage per vessel and grant the Federal Maritime Commission new investigative and enforcement authorities. The House passed its version in December (see 2112080075).
A bipartisan amendment that would ban mink farming for fur production in the U.S. passed the House of Representatives 262-168, as the House was working its way through hundreds of amendments to the America Competes Act. The amendment, co-sponsored by Reps. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and Nancy Mace, R-S.C., amends the Lacey Act. It was changed from the original language, which spoke specifically of ending import and export of Neovison vison, the species known as American minks. The new version bans the sale, possession, acquisition, purchase or transport of the species, if it was raised in captivity for fur production. If this section of the bill survives the conference committee process with the Senate, it would take effect Dec. 31.