The Senate voted 53-43 along party lines late March 26 to confirm former Assistant Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender as deputy treasury secretary. The Treasury Department issued a statement welcoming Faulkender’s confirmation; it didn't say whether he had been sworn in yet. At a Senate Finance Committee hearing on his nomination in early March, Faulkender said he wants to study whether changes should be made to the Biden administration’s October 2024 rule restricting outbound investment in China (see 2503060069).
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch, R-Idaho, and Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman emeritus of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, both said March 26 that they welcome the Trump administration’s decision to add 82 entities, mostly tech firms in mainland China, to the Commerce Department’s Entity List (see 2503250075).
Reps. Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, and Jim Himes, D-Conn., reintroduced a bill March 26 that would require the administration to develop a strategy to prevent the use of digital assets for illicit activity, including sanctions evasion. The Financial Technology Protection Act, which the House passed in the last Congress (see 2407230002), was referred to the House Financial Services Committee. Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C., is expected to reintroduce a Senate companion.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved by voice vote March 27 a bill aimed at curbing China’s export of fentanyl precursor chemicals to Mexican drug traffickers.
CBP on March 31 will officially retire the trade export data universe in ACE reports and replace it with an “enhancement” to the Automated Export System universe, the agency said. Before the retirement, filers of ACE Reports “must repoint any saved Trade Export reports to the” AES universe. They can do this through a two-step process:
The U.K. this week amended or corrected sanctions listings under its Russia and Global Human Rights sanctions regimes. Under the Russia restrictions, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation amended the listings for 2Rivers DMCC and 2Rivers PTE LTD, noting that the companies are sanctioned for supporting the Russian government by "carrying on business in a sector of strategic significance" to the Russian government, "namely the Russian energy sector." Under the Global Human Rights sanctions regime, OFSI corrected the listing for Wasantha Karannagoda, commander of the Sri Lankan Navy from 2005 to 2009, to reflect the title of Admiral as part of his full name.
The U.S. is asking Malaysia to more closely track shipments of advanced semiconductors, including chips made by U.S. firm Nvidia, to make sure they’re not transiting the country before ending up in China in violation of U.S. export controls, the Financial Times reported. Trade Minister Zafrul Aziz said the U.S. is “asking us to make sure that we monitor every shipment that comes to Malaysia when it involves Nvidia chips,” according to the report. “They want us to make sure that servers end up in the data centres that they're supposed to and not suddenly move to another ship." Aziz also said Malaysia recently formed a task force to tighten regulations around the country’s data center sector, which relies on Nvidia chips.
Six Senate Banking Committee Democrats, including ranking member Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., asked the Trump administration March 26 to explain how it plans to implement the $20 million funding cut it recently imposed on the Bureau of Industry and Security, including whether it intends to shrink the agency’s workforce.
Technology companies and industry groups mostly supported a January State Department rule that will add items to the U.S. Munitions List and remove other items that no longer warrant control (see 2501160027), although they said new restrictions around autonomous underwater vehicles, radar-related technology and more could cause unintended consequences.
Longtime Bureau of Industry and Security officials Hillary Hess, Sheila Quarterman and Carlos Monroy soon will retire from the agency, multiple people familiar with the matter said.