Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., introduced a bill that could require more foreign investment reporting and oversight of foreign companies in the U.S. space sector. The Space Protection of American Command and Enterprise Act, introduced Dec. 2, would require companies to submit Schedule 13D/13G reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission for foreign investments in U.S. companies involved in critical technologies used for space exploration, Rubio said. It would also require the Defense, Commerce and Treasury departments to submit an annual report to Congress on foreign direct investment in U.S. space exploration and manufacturing, including the countries of origin for the FDIs. Rubio said the bill would help limit China’s efforts to “overtake” the U.S. in space industrialization. “The United States should not sit idly while the [Chinese Communist Party] infiltrates American companies, steals our intellectual property, and exploits our domestically produced technology,” he said. “Protecting our technological investments from the CCP’s corporate espionage is critical to our economic and national security.”
Airbnb may be violating U.S. sanctions by listing more than a dozen homes for rent on land owned by a sanctioned paramilitary Chinese entity, said Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. In a Dec. 7 letter to the company, Rubio said Airbnb is “complicit in enriching an organization facilitating horrific human rights abuse” and called on Airbnb to delist the rentals. Airbnb lists homes for rent on land owned by Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, which was sanctioned by the Treasury Department in 2020 for helping to create a surveillance and detention program for Muslim minority groups (see 2111300031 and 2007310028). Although the company said it operates a sanctions compliance program and doesn’t believe it’s violating sanctions, Rubio said he doesn’t understand how transactions related to the rentals are legal. “How a paramilitary organization complicit in heinous human rights abuses could pass such a screen is beyond comprehension,” Rubio said. “By continuing to allow these listings, Airbnb is implicitly endorsing and encouraging travel to Xinjiang, a region host to an ongoing genocide.” An Airbnb spokesperson and Treasury spokesperson declined to comment.
A textile preferences program slated to end in 2025 should be renewed for 10 years, legislation, the Haiti Economic Lift Program (HELP) Extension Act, introduced by Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate says. Lead sponsors in the House are Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, R-Fla., and Rep Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., and in the Senate, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La.
More than 20 Democrats this week urged House leadership to consider a range of bills that they said can help ease supply chain backlogs and port issues. In a Dec. 2 letter, the lawmakers said Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., should “turn the House’s attention” to those bills as the holiday season approaches “to specifically address the supply chain and resulting higher prices experienced by families across the country.”
A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a bill Nov. 30 to clarify U.S. sanctions policy on Iranian efforts to acquire unmanned drones. The Stop Iranian Drones Act would clarify that sanctions under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act apply to the “supply, sale or transfer to or from Iran of unmanned combat aerial vehicles.” The legislation also states that it is the policy of the U.S. to “prevent Iran and Iranian-aligned groups from acquiring unmanned aerial vehicles” that may be used in attacks against the U.S. or its allies. “With this bill, we are ensuring the world knows that the U.S. will use every tool to cut off Iran’s UAV supplies and to punish those who continue to supply Iran with UAVs and parts despite their destructive impact,” said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, who introduced the bill alongside Reps. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y.; Joe Wilson, R-S.C.; and Ted Deutch, D-Fla.
More than 50 technology and auto companies urged congressional leaders to fund the CHIPS for America Act and pass a “strengthened version” of the Facilitating American Built Semiconductors Act, saying they would provide a much-needed boost to the U.S. semiconductor industry amid the global chip shortage. The companies -- including Apple, Microsoft, Ford, IBM and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) -- said chip demand has “outstripped supply, creating a global chip shortage and resulting in lost growth and jobs in the economy.” It has also “exposed vulnerabilities in the semiconductor supply chain,” they said, which has highlighted the need for a more robust chip manufacturing base in the U.S.
Indiana Republican Sen. Todd Young, who co-led the Endless Frontier bill with Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, said he hopes to learn more soon about when conferees might be named to negotiate a compromise between the House and the Senate approaches to a China package. "I'm supposed to huddle up with Sen. Schumer today. I need to approach him. I have not had an opportunity to personally chat with him about the state of things," Young said in a brief hallway interview Nov. 30.
The House Science Committee has been ready to go to conference on science and tech legislation since passing its bills in June, but members are waiting for Democratic leadership to take action on the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (S. 1260), the committee ranking member Frank Lucas, R-Okla., said in a recent interview.
The Congressional Research Service published a report dated Nov. 10 on the supply chain issues at U.S. ports, detailing disruptions to customs processes, container flows and more. It also describes the range of port inefficiencies being faced by traders and forwarders, including equipment and driver shortages, container fees, and “inadequate” Department of Transportation data collection efforts on detention time that could have been used "for considering policy changes."
Nine liberal senators, led by Democrats Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont, want the U.S. to push Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the European Union to agree to an Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) waiver at the World Trade Organization, so that COVID-19 vaccine production can accelerate in Asia, Latin America and Africa.