Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., introduced a bill that would require the administration to keep export controls on Huawei. Rep. Daniel Webster, R-Fla., and Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, co-sponsored the measure.

Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., introduced a bill directing the administration to impose sanctions on an Iraqi militia group, Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada, which he said conducted attacks against U.S. soldiers in Baghdad. The bill is called the Sanctioning Iranian-Backed Militia Terrorist Act.

The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Michael McCaul, R-Texas, promised a "thorough review of the policies and procedures" at the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security after the state-run China Academy of Engineering Physics reportedly was able to continue purchasing U.S.-made semiconductors since 2020 despite being on a U.S. export ban list since 1997.

Nineteen House Republicans, led by Rep. Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin, introduced a non-binding resolution this week calling on the administration to negotiate a free trade agreement with Taiwan. The lawmakers also want the U.S. to recognize Taiwan as an independent country, and establish formal diplomatic relations.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., introduced bills last week to ban TikTok, the short-video platform owned by China-based Byte Dance. "Banning [Chinese Communist Party] tied TikTok nationwide is the only route to ending this malicious cybersecurity threat,” Buck said in a press release.

Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., is working on a bill to revise certain aspects of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, he said in a brief interview at the Capitol last week. There are a “lot of opportunities” under the Australia-U.K.-U.S. (AUKUS) partnership that “we haven’t realized right now,” Gallagher said, adding that the ITAR “remains a barrier to cooperation with the Aussies and the Brits.” It “makes no sense to me,” he said.

Reps. Brian Mast, R-Fla., and Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., recently reintroduced a bill that would require the administration to send Congress a report identifying any foreign person or agency that “knowingly assists in, sponsors, or provides significant financial or material support for, or financial or other services to” Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The report also should identify senior members of those two groups. The bill would require a number of sanctions on those people and groups, including no exports of controlled technologies, and says that the executive branch could block all financial transactions with the people and groups, if it chooses. A previous effort to hike sanctions on those supporting Hamas passed the House in 2019.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and ranking member Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, told U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai that USMCA's full potential has not been realized, and that USTR must pursue "robust enforcement."

Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., who was the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, will take the chairmanship of the subcommittee now that Republicans are in the majority. The announcement was made Jan. 26. He issued a statement that said American consumers and producers are sitting on "the sidelines of the global economy because of the Biden administration’s failure to put forward a proactive trade agenda."

The Combatting Global Corruption Act, a bill that would rank countries on their efforts to fight corruption, and would direct the State Department to evaluate whether the worst offenders should be subject to Magnitsky Act sanctions, was introduced this week in the Senate. It's the same bill that was introduced in early 2021 (see 2102120035).