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).

Republicans named members to the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the U.S. and the Chinese Communist Party. The committee will be bipartisan, but its Democratic members have not yet been announced.

The Biden administration should quickly approve shipments of "critical weapon systems" to Ukraine, including "Leopard 2 tanks, ATACMS, and other long-range precision munitions," Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a Jan. 18 statement. The country's "current indecision" is "costing Ukrainian lives," it said, and the administration should approve the shipments "without delay."

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., new to the position, announced the committee's new Republican members:

Members of the House of Representatives voted 365-65 on the second day of the session to create a Select Committee on China. The committee, which will be led by Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., will be bipartisan.

Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., was chosen to be the House Ways and Means Committee chairman by the House Steering Committee, edging out Rep. Vern Buchanan, the Florida Republican who was considered the establishment choice.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., asked the Biden administration to offer more general licenses to Cuban small businesses so they can avoid the sanctions on Cuba. Wyden, who visited Cuba in late December, said he'll be talking with Senate colleagues about how to help the Cuban private sector grow. He said in a Jan. 4 press release that a stronger private sector could both lay the foundations for "fundamental political and economic reforms" in Cuba and reduce Cuban migration to the U.S. -- which was nearly 250,000 in 2022.

For the first time in 100 years, the House of Representatives was unable to choose a speaker on the first vote. Because 19 Republicans this week voted for someone other than Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., no candidate got a majority of the votes. The same result happened on the second vote.

Rep. Steve Scalise, the House Majority Leader-elect, told his colleagues in a Dec. 30 letter that he plans to bring 11 pieces of legislation for a vote during the first two weeks of the 118th Congress, including a bill that would establish a Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party.

The Congressional Research Service this month published an overview of sanctions legislation introduced during the 117th Congress, including country-specific sanctions bills, bills related to human rights and terrorism sanctions, and other matters that sought to address sanctions policy. Members of Congress introduced more than 350 sanctions bills during the past two years, the report said, and seven have been signed into law.