Eighteen House members, led by Reps. Maria Salazar, R-Fla., and Tom Malinowski, D-N.J., introduced the Nicaragua Free Trade Review Act, which requires the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to review Nicaragua's compliance with the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) within 60 days of the bill becoming law. “Under Daniel Ortega, Nicaragua has become a land of oppression” Salazar said in a June 17 news release. “Ortega's thugs are jailing political opponents and violently silencing dissenting voices. I've introduced the Nicaragua Free Trade Review Act because trade with the United States is a privilege, not a right. We must show Ortega's regime that they cannot continue repressing the Nicaraguan people while reaping the economic benefits of free trade with the United States.”

A bipartisan group of lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee introduced a bill last week they say will strengthen semiconductor supply chains by incentivizing more domestic manufacturing. The Facilitating American-Built Semiconductors (FABS) Act, like several similar bills proposed in recent months (see 2106100028), would introduce investment tax credits for investments in semiconductor manufacturing and other incentives for the semiconductor industry, the senators said June 17. An emphasis would be placed on manufacturing of “specialized tooling equipment” required in the semiconductor manufacturing process. Committee Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and top Republican Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, introduced the bill with four other committee members as co-sponsors.

The State Department should issue more sanctions against Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega regime, which is arresting political opposition leaders and continues to commit human rights violations, a group of Republican and Democratic lawmakers said. In a June 15 letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the lawmakers said the U.S. can expand on the designations issued June 9 against members of Ortega’s inner circle (see 2106090055).

The two top Republicans on the Senate and House foreign affairs committees urged President Joe Biden to immediately impose a second round of sanctions against Russia under the U.S. Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act. In a June 16 letter, Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, and Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said the administration was required to impose a second round of sanctions under the CBW Act unless it certified to Congress by June 2 that the Vladimir Putin regime was “no longer using chemical weapons in violation of international law” and agreed to on-site inspections. The Biden administration had imposed the first round of sanctions against Russia in March (see 2103020067).

Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee said the State Department must submit to Congress any new deal reached with Iran over its nuclear commitments and allow lawmakers to “review and assess” it. The lawmakers said a potential U.S. return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action would “clearly” constitute a new deal and would require congressional review under the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., introduced a bill to prevent the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board from potentially investing federal civil servants’ retirement savings in companies on the Entity List. The Thrift Savings Plan Fiduciary Security Act would modify the FRTIB's duties by “incorporating a duty to not harm U.S. national security,” Rubio said June 10. Under the legislation, the board would not be allowed to invest in companies on the Commerce Department’s Entity List or companies designated by the Treasury Department as Chinese military companies. “The Board and their friends on Wall Street will get away with using American servicemembers’ own savings to fund threats to U.S. national security if the fiduciary duties binding these money managers only focus on short-term financial value,” Rubio said. “My legislation would update the Board’s fiduciary duty to more accurately reflect the interests of the TSP’s beneficiaries, rather than the financial interests of Wall Street.”

The Senate voted 68-32 this week to approve a comprehensive China package that would authorize a host of measures to address trade and technology competition issues with China. The U.S Innovation and Competition Act of 2021 has provisions from both the Strategic Competition Act (see 2104210038) and the Endless Frontier Act (see 2105130025), including measures that would incentivize more domestic semiconductor manufacturing and research. President Joe Biden said June 8 that he looks forward to working with the House to pass the legislation and that he hopes to sign “it into law as soon as possible.”

Rep. Devin Nunes of California, the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health, introduced a bill June 8 that would require a congressional vote before the U.S. could agree at the World Trade Organization to waive intellectual property rights on COVID-19 vaccines, a process known as a Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement waiver. The bill, H.R. 3788, “pushes back against the Biden Administration’s effort to surrender expensive American medical technology to foreign competitors,” Nunes said in a news release. “The Biden Administration’s support for surrendering intellectual property protections for American-made COVID-19 vaccines serves only to harm Americans and help hostile foreign powers like Communist China. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine a more self-defeating or unjust policy.”

Two senators asked the Treasury Department for an “immediate briefing” on steps the agency is taking to identify foreign banks doing business with sanctioned Chinese officials under the Hong Kong Autonomy Act. Sens. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., in their June 8 letter, also requested a briefing on Treasury efforts to target those banks through “evidentiary sanctions packages that can withstand scrutiny” in U.S. courts. In its latest report to Congress, required under the HKAA, Treasury said it hasn’t found evidence of any foreign banks facilitating “significant transactions” for the sanctioned officials (see 2105180032).

A bill that would establish both a carbon tax and a carbon border adjustment tax has been introduced in both the House and Senate. Rep. Marie Newman, D-Ill., said that the bill she sponsored "serves as one comprehensive plan to achieving critical reductions in greenhouse gas emissions while providing workers in declining energy sectors with a fair transition into new good-paying jobs. By investing in clean energy and embracing economy-wide carbon pricing, the plan will renew America’s leadership in technology and innovation while also building a sustainable future for all communities. "