Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa., and Rep Susan Wild, D-Pa., introduced a bill that would establish congressional oversight of some U.S. sanctions on Russia. No text has been released yet, and Meuser's office didn't respond to a request for the text by press time.
The Senate confirmed Alan Estevez to be the next undersecretary of the Bureau of Industry and Security March 31, marking the end of a monthslong nomination process and giving BIS its first confirmed leader in more than five years (see 2104070026 and 2107130004). Estevez will take over BIS at a critical time for the agency, which in recent weeks has been tasked with crafting and implementing hundreds of pages of new export control regulations to penalize Russia for its war in Ukraine.
The Senate Banking Committee will hold a nomination hearing April 6 for Paul Rosen, President Joe Biden’s nominee for assistant secretary for investment security at the Treasury Department. Rosen, who would oversee Treasury’s role as the chair of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., was nominated in March (see 2203090015).
Apple is considering incorporating chips made by Yangtze Memory Technologies Co., Bloomberg reported March 30, a Chinese state-owned company that some lawmakers say should be placed on the Commerce Department’s Entity list. Apple is exploring placing YMTC memory chips into its iPhones after one of its key suppliers in Japan, Kioxia Holdings Corp., “lost a batch of output to contamination” in February, the report said. Apple is “keen to diversify its network and offset the risk of further disruption from the pandemic and shipping snarls,” the report said, and is now testing sample NAND flash memory chips made by YMTC.
A new bill introduced in the House would require the administration to study how digital currencies could help Russia evade U.S. sanctions. The legislation, introduced March 31 by Reps. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., and Michael McCaul, R-Texas, the chairman of and ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, also would create a new State Department officer to oversee sanctions evasion efforts involving digital currency.
The administration should continue to levy new sanctions against Chinese officials responsible for human rights abuses, including a permanent ban on exports of crowd-control equipment to Hong Kong police, the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China said in a report last week.
The House should add stronger sanctions measures to the Russia-related bills recently passed out of the Financial Services Committee (see 2203180021), including more serious capital market and investment penalties, the Coalition for a Prosperous America said in a March 29 letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Senators on the committee that oversees trade pressed U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai repeatedly on why the administration isn't engaged in negotiations with other countries to get them to lower their tariffs, so that U. S.exporters, particularly agricultural producers, can gain more market share. Both Democrats and Republicans questioned the decision to pursue the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework as something other than a traditional free trade agreement.
During a hearing with the House Ways and Means Committee March 30, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai was asked by many Republicans and a few Democrats why the administration has ruled out cutting tariffs to convince negotiating partners in Asia to open their markets, and why it has shied away from continuing free trade agreement negotiations started during the previous administration.
The top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee is asking the Biden administration for more information on Russia's ability to use digital currencies to evade sanctions. The director of national intelligence should say whether there are “any indications” Russia is using digital assets to evade sanctions, said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, including whether Russian oligarchs and officials are turning to cryptocurrency.