A group of Senate and House Democrats called on the Biden administration to designate more spyware technology companies for human rights abuses, saying the designations will complement existing export restrictions meant to curb their sales of surveillance technologies to authoritarian governments. In a Dec. 15 letter to the Treasury and the State Department, the lawmakers said the U.S. should specifically impose Global Magnitsky sanctions against United Arab Emirates-based DarkMatter (see 2110220033), Israel-based NSO Group and European companies Nexa Technologies and Trovicor. The sanctions should target the companies as well as their CEOs and other senior executives, the letter said, adding that they all have sold surveillance technologies and services to help governments commit human rights violations.
toSearch Primer
Term list: Separate terms with spaces, not commas or semicolons.
Multi-word term: Place inside quotes to ensure an exact match (e.g. "foreign direct product rule").
Acronyms: Use all capital letters to ensure the search is not looking for that letter sequence instead. (e.g., BIS).
Required term: If a term must be included in any resulting articles, prefix it with a plus sign (e.g., BIS +Huawei).
Excluded term: If a term should be excluded from any articles being found, prefix it with a minus sign (e.g., China -tariff).
Simplest form: Use the simplest form of a term (e.g. "russian export control" instead of "russian export controls" or "entity list" instead of "entity listing").
Senate and House lawmakers reached a compromise agreement this week on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which includes a sanctions provision targeting human rights abusers in China. The text of the agreement, released just hours before it passed in the House on Dec. 14, would require the Biden administration to identify and sanction any foreign person, including Chinese government officials, responsible for “serious’ human rights abuses against Muslim minority groups in China's Xinjiang region. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki suggested President Joe Biden will support the bill. "We have been clear that we share Congress' view that action must be taken to hold [China] accountable for human rights abuses, and to address forced labor in Xinjiang," Psaki told reporters Dec. 14. The U.S. has already imposed a range of sanctions and other trade and investment restrictions against Chinese people and entities for human rights violations in Xinjiang, including an investment ban against SenseTime and sanctions against two Xinjiang officials this month (see 2112100034).
The U.S. may need to consider new multilateral sanctions against Russia for its continued military aggression in Ukraine, the leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee said Dec. 13. Committee Chair Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., and ranking member Michael McCaul, R-Texas., said the U.S. can make “no concessions” for Russia at the “expense” of Ukraine’s sovereignty. “We stand ready to work with the Administration and our transatlantic allies to deter further Russian aggression against Ukraine,” the lawmakers said, “including by imposing serious new sanctions on Russia should it continue its invasion into Ukraine.”
The Senate this week voted against a resolution that would have blocked a proposed weapons sale to Saudi Arabia. Senators on Dec. 7 voted 67-30 against the resolution, which aimed to stop the shipment of various missiles, including AIM-120C Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles and related equipment (see 2111050007). Before the vote, the Biden administration said it “strongly” opposes the resolution, adding that it would “undermine the President’s commitment to aid in our partner’s defenses at a time of increased missile and drone attacks against civilians in Saudi Arabia.”
The Senate confirmed Tucson, Arizona, Police Chief Chris Magnus as CBP commissioner on a vote of 50-47 on Dec. 7. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine was the only Republican to vote for him. The agency hasn't had a confirmed leader since 2019.
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.