The House Select Committee on China said in a new report that the Bureau of Industry and Security should receive additional funding to improve its export control capabilities amid a growing workload.

The U.S. government, which provided limited sanctions relief to Syria in January, is examining options to further ease those measures, such as through waivers and licenses (see 2501060034), the State Department told Senate Banking Committee ranking member Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., in a letter she publicly released April 16.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week announced additional sanctions for leaders of La Nueva Familia Michoacana drug cartel, and removed Magnitsky sanctions for a Hungarian government official.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned the International Bank of Yemen (IBY) April 17 for financially supporting the Yemen-based Houthis, also known as Ansarallah.

When imposing trade restrictions on China, the U.S. should do more analysis to better understand how Beijing might retaliate with export controls, a former State Department official said April 14.

The first few weeks of Undersecretary Jeffrey Kessler’s tenure at the Bureau of Industry and Security have been defined by industry uncertainty and skepticism toward career government and business officials, industry members and BIS staff said.

The State Department has approved a possible $825 million military sale to Morocco, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said April 15. The sale includes “FIM-92K Stinger Block I missiles and related equipment,” and the principal contractors will be RTX Corp. and Lockheed Martin.

Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., whose nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the U.N. was recently withdrawn because of the tight House Republican majority, announced April 9 that she has been appointed to the Congressional-Executive Commission on China.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who introduced a bill in January to prohibit AI technology exports to China (see 2502030031), said April 14 that he believes recent news about China’s AI activities might give his legislation a lift.

The leaders of the House Select Committee on China said April 16 that they have asked U.S.-based Nvidia whether and how the company’s chips powered the recent development of an advanced artificial intelligence model by Chinese startup DeepSeek despite U.S. export restrictions.