The Congressional Research Service issued a report on U.S.-Iran tensions and their impacts on U.S. policy, including scenarios wherein U.S. sanctions are strengthened. The report, released Aug 30, also includes a timeline of statements issued by Iranian and U.S. officials on sanctions, an explanation for the European Union’s “hesitancy to back the U.S. maximum pressure campaign” on Iran, and a series of consequences for the U.S. pulling out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Rep. Ron Kind, co-chairman of the New Democrats' trade task force, said U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has done a good job on outreach, and sounding sympathetic to Democrats' complaints about enforceability, labor and other issues they want changed in the NAFTA rewrite. But Kind, who was speaking to reporters on a conference call from the Midwest on Sept. 4, said that "for some reason there's been a reluctance on sharing paper, putting words down" that would change the trade deal to satisfy these requests.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said the preview of the Japan trade agreement talked about at the G-7 may only be in principle so far, "but I think this Japanese agreement will give farmers some reason to smile." Grassley, who was speaking with reporters on a conference call Aug. 29, said the deal would give dairy producers, wheat farmers, beef and pork producers and ethanol producers better access to Japan's market in return for eliminating U.S. tariffs "on certain industrial products," and the tariffs on those products are already pretty low.

Arizona's two senators -- a Democrat and a Republican -- are questioning the Commerce Department's efforts to update a recently terminated agreement between Mexico and the U.S. that ended an old antidumping case against Mexican tomatoes.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that a Brexit that makes a full break with the European customs union will not be rewarded with a U.S. free trade deal. Pelosi, who issued a statement Aug. 14 after National Security Adviser John Bolton said that a free trade agreement with Britain could be done quickly after Brexit, though he said it would have to tackle easier issues first and tackle other sectors later.

Republican senators urged the European Union to increase sanctions on the Nicolas Maduro-led regime in Venezuela, saying in a letter the EU should “align its sanctions regime” with that of the U.S. and Canada, according to an Aug. 8 Senate Foreign Relations Committee press release. The senators said the U.S. and Canada have imposed sanctions on more than 200 Venezuelan government officials, and the EU’s support would “send a powerful message” to Maduro.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, raised the possibility that he would not be able to broker a compromise between the two approaches on restraining the president's ability to levy tariffs under Section 232. While he said his goal is to have a committee meeting in late September or early October that would take up a "Grassley-Wyden" version, he said if that can't happen, he will bring forward competing bills and allow lots of amendments to shape them.

Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., say an overvalued dollar and other countries' efforts to devalue their currencies created the trade deficit that meant "90,000 factories have closed down, thousands of family farms have gone bankrupt, and millions of manufacturing workers have lost their jobs." The Midwestern senators have introduced a bill, called the Competitive Dollar for Jobs and Prosperity Act, that aims to fix that. They announced the bill -- along with support from Trump allies like the Coalition for a Prosperous America -- on July 31.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed a bill on July 31 that would sanction anyone involved with Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. The bill authorizes the Trump administration to impose a series of sanctions on those involved, including restricted use of the U.S. Export-Import Bank, restricted export licenses, asset freezes and more. The administration cannot use the measures to ban a sanctioned person from importing goods into the U.S., the bill said. If Congress passes the bill, the State Department would be required to submit an annual report to Congress on all entities involved in the pipeline project.

The Senate on July 29 failed to override President Donald Trump’s vetoes of three separate resolutions blocking the U.S.’s arms deal with Saudi Arabia and with the United Arab Emirates. The effort failed in each of the votes -- 45-40, 45-39 and 46-41 -- which needed a two-thirds majority to pass. The sales, announced in May by the State Department, used the Arms Export Control Act’s emergency provision to bypass congressional approval and move forward with 22 arms transfers worth about $8 billion to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.