A new Republican-backed bill in the Senate and House could lead to U.S. sanctions against senior Argentine government officials. The bill, led in the Senate by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and in the House by Rep. Maria Salazar of Florida, would require the president to investigate five Argentine officials for corruption: Argentina’s Vice President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner; her son, former lawmaker Maximo Kirchner; Vice Minister of Justice Juan Martin Mena; Sen. Oscar Isidro Jose Parrilli; and Carlos Alberto Zannini, the Argentina Treasury's lead prosecutor. If the president determines they “meet the criteria for corruption sanctions, the bill mandates the imposition of those sanctions,” according to Cruz’s news release.
Reps. John Garamendi, D-Calif., and Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., unveiled new legislation this week that they said will build on last year’s Ocean Shipping Reform Act (see 2303240068) by further expanding the Federal Maritime Commission's authority and “crack down” on China’s “attempts to influence America’s supply chain.” The Ocean Shipping Reform Implementation Act, introduced March 29, would block U.S. ports from using Chinese state-sponsored logistics software, allow the FMC to investigate foreign shipping exchanges to “preempt improper business practices," authorize the commission to “streamline data standards” to aid maritime freight logistics and more.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee this week advanced two sanctions bills, including one that could lead to new human rights sanctions against Haiti and another that would prevent the administration from removing sanctions against Cuba until it meets certain requirements.
The House unanimously passed a bill this week that could lead to new export controls on U.S. goods and technologies that China may be using to develop and support undersea communication cables. The Undersea Cable Control Act would require the State Department to create a “strategy” to “eliminate the availability to foreign adversaries of goods and technologies capable of supporting undersea cables,” and calls on the administration to establish “bilateral or plurilateral agreements” with allies to prevent China and other “adversaries” from acquiring these items.
The Biden administration should impose new sanctions against the Bolivian government for recent human rights violations, Republicans said in a letter to the White House last week. The government has arrested political rivals, and its “absence of a robust opposition, civil society and independent media” provides an “open door for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and other authoritarian regimes to further impose their strategic interests on the South American country and the region,” said the letter, signed by six lawmakers, including Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Carlos Gimenez, both of Florida. It’s “imperative that the United States hold accountable those Bolivian human rights abusers that violate the fundamental freedoms of Bolivia’s opposition candidates, and their supporters.” The White House didn’t comment.
The Biden administration should sanction Amjad Yousef, a Syrian military official, for his role in killing innocent civilians during the Tadamon massacre in Syria in April 2013, said the Republican and Democratic leaders on the House and Senate foreign relations committees. The lawmakers said Yousef should be sanctioned under the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019, adding that they have taken “note of the disappointingly slow pace of sanctions under the Caesar Act and believe more can be done to ensure that perpetrators of atrocities in Syria face consequences for their actions.”
In more than four hours of questioning during a hearing March 24 before the House Ways and Means Committee, no member of Congress advocated for lessening tariffs on Chinese goods under Section 301, or for reopening exclusions applications.
The House this week passed a bill that would direct the State Department to report to Congress on export-related issues under the Australia-U.K.-U.S. (AUKUS) partnership (see 2303130035). The bill, which passed 393-4, also would require the agency to provide information on the average processing times for defense-related export license applications involving Australia and the U.K., information on voluntary disclosures of ITAR violations, ITAR penalties involving the two countries, and an “assessment of recommended improvements to export control laws.” The legislation is viewed as the first step toward potential revision of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, the U.S. defense export regulations that industry experts and others say prevent technology sharing and collaboration with close allies (see 2302170022, 2303170045 and 2303140018).
The Biden administration should “immediately” send “cluster munitions,” including “dual purpose improved conventional munitions,” to Ukraine’s military as it fights against Russia, Republicans said in a March 21 letter to the White House. The lawmakers said they “remain deeply disappointed in your administration’s reluctance to provide Ukraine with the right type and amount of long-range fires and maneuver capability to create and exploit operational breakthroughs against the Russians,” adding that the consequences are “playing out on the battlefield.”
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., recently introduced a bill that would prevent the president and State Department from removing sanctions against Cuba until it certifies the country is respecting human rights and meeting other requirements. The Fighting Oppression until the Reign of Castro Ends Act, announced by Rubio in a news release last week along with two other Cuba-related bills, would require the U.S. to keep Cuba on its list of state sponsors of terrorism unless it certifies that Cuba has established an independent judiciary, respects free speech, has released political prisoners and has met other requirements under the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act of 1996.