The State Department should sanction entities in Tunisia undermining the country’s stability, said Sens. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and Jim Risch, R-Idaho, the chair and ranking member, respectively, of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The lawmakers said President Kais Saied’s recent constitutional referendum was a “vast expansion of presidential powers and drastically diminished the Tunisian people’s ability to elect their own government.” The U.S. should work with G7 partners to “address the erosion of Tunisian democracy and mitigate the effects of the country’s economic crisis,” the Oct. 16 letter said.
U.S. technology companies should make use of a Treasury Department license that authorizes certain communication-related transactions with Iran, a bipartisan group of lawmakers said last week. General License D2, issued in September (see 2209230037), can help Iranians obtain tools and access communication services to help them “circumvent government blockages,” the lawmakers said in an Oct. 27 letter to Google, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft and Digital Ocean. The companies should be more “proactive in acting pursuant to the broad authorization provided in GLD-2,” said the letter, signed by Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, along with Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and others.
A Republican-backed bill introduced in the House could lead to the transfer of export control authorities from the Commerce Department to the Defense Department. The bill, introduced Oct. 28 by Reps. Jim Banks, R-Ind., Rob Wittman, R-Va., and Greg Steube, R-Fla., includes language critical of the Bureau of Industry and Security, saying the agency has made “little progress” in controlling emerging and foundational technologies under the Export Control Reform Act and that BIS’s export control authorities should be revoked.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., and House Commerce Committee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., separately raised concerns this week about Chinese government interference in DOJ’s criminal investigation of Huawei after the U.S. government charged two Chinese intelligence officers with attempting to obstruct that probe (see 2210240061).
A bipartisan Senate bill unveiled this week could require the U.S. to impose “robust” human rights sanctions against criminal groups in Haiti. The Haiti Criminal Collusion Transparency Act of 2022, sponsored by Sens. Bob Menendez, D-N.J.; Marco Rubio, R-Fla.; and Tim Kaine, D-Va., would lead to the imposition of Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act sanctions on Haitian gang leaders and the “political and economic elites that support their activities.” The bill also would require the administration to report on gang violence in Haiti and their ties to members of the country's elite.
Six Republican and four Democratic senators are asking U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai if she is meeting the legal requirement to consult with Congress before the U.S. commits to an intellectual property waiver related to the pandemic, a topic of discussion at the World Trade Organization.
The Biden administration should impose sanctions on people in Ethiopia responsible for war crimes, Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, each said in recent days. The two lawmakers both pointed to a recent escalation in violence in the country and said those responsible should be held accountable.
The Biden administration should cripple Huawei’s plans to build a semiconductor foundry in Shenzhen through additional export controls, five Republican senators said in a recent letter to the White House. They said Huawei is using Pengxinwei (PXW) IC Manufacturing -- a startup launched by a former Huawei executive, Bloomberg reported -- to build a new chip foundry in a bid to evade U.S. trade restrictions. The letter was signed by Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, both of Tennessee, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida.
Reps. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., and Mayra Flores, R-Texas, introduced a bill to make Plattsburgh International Airport and Valley International Airport official ports of entry. Currently, these airports pay for CBP's cargo examinations, immigration inspections and the like.
The top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said the administration has "a strong case for what they're doing" in restricting U.S. technology that aids the Chinese semiconductor industry (see 2210070049), but he questions how effective it will be unless the Netherlands and Japan go along.