During a House Financial Services subcommittee hearing on U.S. sanctions, several panelists painted a grave picture of the state of U.S.-imposed sanctions on Russia, calling for additional, stronger measures and criticizing the Trump administration's removal of sanctions from several Russian companies in January. “You’ve asked whether the current sanctions policy is effective, especially as it relates to Russia,” Daleep Singh, a senior fellow for the Center for a New American Security, told the Subcommittee on National Security, International Development and Monetary Policy on May 15. “Forgive me for being blunt, but my answer right now is 'no.'”

A vote on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement will “hopefully” be soon, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, but stressed that the deal needs strong enforcement provisions before any progress will be made. During a Washington Post Live interview on May 8, Pelosi said an enforcement agreement is a prerequisite to any vote. “Unless you have it built into the agreement … it’s not binding on the other country. It’s us talking to ourselves,” she said. In a recent conversation with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Pelosi said, she urged him to include enforcement in the agreement, or else the agreement is “not a serious thing.” Pelosi said the Trump administration has expressed a desire to work on enforcement and said Trump has told her “we want to get to a yes” on the deal. “So hopefully that will be soon,” she said.

The National Association of Manufacturers urged the Senate to confirm three nominees to the board of directors for the Export-Import Bank of the United States, saying it would restore a “hobbled” entity. NAM endorsed Kimberly Reed for president and chair and Spencer Bachus III and Judith DelZoppo Pryor to serve on the board of directors, it said in a May 6 letter to the Senate. The nominees would give the bank enough directors for a quorum to approve transactions of more than $10 million. The association said the lack of required directors has left the bank unable to “to implement the reforms still outstanding from the 2015 Ex-Im Bank reauthorization.” That has hurt U.S. manufacturers, who have lost about “$119 billion in output as a result.” Calling the nominees “highly qualified,” the letter says their confirmations will help the bank “end America’s unilateral economic disarmament, support America’s manufacturing workers and help the United States compete more effectively with China, Russia and others.” The letter came three days after the Senate voted to end the debate on the nominees (see 1905030027).

Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., introduced a bill on April 30 that would lift the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba and impose export controls on trades with the island. The bill, "United States-Cuba Relations Normalization Act," said the U.S. can “best support democratic change and human rights” in Cuba by, among other conditions, “promoting trade and commerce.” The bill said normal trade relations would help Cuba’s economy transform into a free market and “assist Cuba in adopting regional and world trading rules and principles." If passed, the bill would authorize “new restrictions” on Cuban trade, including export controls under the Export Control Reform Act of 2018. The embargo would lift 60 days after the bill is enacted. The bill was introduced the same day President Donald Trump threatened Cuba with the “highest-level sanctions” and a “complete embargo” if it does not stop military operations in Venezuela (see 1904300228).

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., is asking for co-sponsors on a bill that would designate the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization, just one day after reports surfaced that the White House is also pursuing sanctions against the group. In a May 1 letter, Diaz-Balart said that while the U.S. has designated individual members and branches of the Muslim Brotherhood, it has not yet sanctioned it “as a whole.” He said the foreign terrorist designation would impose “tough sanctions on a dangerous organization with longstanding ties to violent, extremist groups.” Diaz-Balart introduced similar legislation in recent years. The White House has asked national security officials to “find a way” to sanction the group, according to an April 30 report in The New York Times. The White House’s request came after Egypt's President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi visited Washington on April 9 and “urged” President Donald Trump to join his country in sanctioning the organization, the report said.

Rep. Vern Buchanan, the Florida Republican who's ranking member of the Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, is co-sponsoring a bill that would impose sanctions on companies that make and send fentanyl to the U.S. Buchanan, joined by Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., introduced the bill April 10. The bill, H.R. 2226, notes that the Treasury Department used the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act to sanction a synthetic opioid trafficker in April 2018, but says "precision economic and financial sanctions policy tools are needed to address the flow of synthetic opioids." The bill is a companion to a bipartisan Senate bill introduced earlier in the month by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. (see 1904040028). It would require the administration to publicly identify the companies that are selling fentanyl to dealers, bar imports of any kind from those companies, freeze their assets, deny visas to its officials and cut them off from the U.S. banking system. Congress would dedicate $600 million for investigations to uncover which companies are responsible.

A bipartisan bill that would prohibit importation, exportation and interstate trade of bear viscera or products advertised as containing bear viscera was introduced in the House of Representatives on April 10. Reps. Ted Lieu, D-Calif.; Rodney Davis, R-Ill.; Ann Kuster, D-N.H.; and Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., co-sponsored H.R. 2264. The Bear Protection Act of 2019 says, "thousands of bears in Asia are cruelly confined in small cages to be milked for their bile, and the wild Asian bear population has declined significantly in recent years, as a result of habitat loss and poaching due to a strong demand for bear viscera used in traditional medicines and cosmetics." It also said that while most American black bear populations are stable or increasing, some bears have been poached for their viscera, and if that commercial trade grew, it could threaten American bear populations.

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., is asking House colleagues to become original co-sponsors of the Brunei Sanctions Act by April 29, in an April 20 letter. The bill, which would sanction certain government officials in Brunei, would make use of the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. Omar's letter said the U.S. “has a duty to call out the blatant disregard for humanity and the violation of basic rights wherever we see them,” and this month “the Sultanate of Brunei instituted a brutal and draconian new Penal Code that would strip away the human rights of its citizens and strengthen the government’s authoritarian grip.” The laws mandate the death penalty for various offenses, including “adultery, consensual same-sex relations, blasphemy, and robbery,” she said. The code also permits “flogging” women who have abortions and amputations for those accused of theft, among other punishments, she said. The potential U.S. sanctions would be applied to any official “who implements this draconian penal code,” Omar said, to ensure they cannot travel to or do business with the U.S.

House Republicans recently introduced a bill that would abolish the Export-Import Bank of the United States, saying the bank’s export subsidies give advantages to specific industries while harming domestic competition and certain sectors of the U.S. economy. If passed, the bank would be abolished three years after the bill’s enactment date. The bill contains a provision that would make the secretary of the Treasury responsible for any “outstanding obligations of the Federal Government under any programs terminated” by the bill. The bill would also terminate the Office of Inspector General for the bank, transferring the office’s obligations to the Treasury. The bill, the "Export-Import Bank Termination Act," was sponsored by Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., and five other House Republicans. It was introduced March 27 and referred to the House Financial Services Committee.

A Senate bill with bipartisan support would require the Trump administration to impose sanctions on Turkish officials, according to a press release from the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. The bill, the Defending United States Citizens and Diplomatic Staff from Political Prosecutions Act, was introduced April 9 by Sens. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Ben Cardin, D-Md. It would sanction senior Turkish officials responsible for the detention of several American citizens over the last few years, including scientist Serkan Golge and pastor Andrew Brunson. “Our bill makes clear that the United States will not tolerate years of Turkish recalcitrance on these cases,” Cardin said in a statement. “Officials in the [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan regime responsible for these crimes must be held accountable under Global Magnitsky standards for their ongoing injustices.”