CBP is making progress on rules to eventually mandate electronic export manifest (EEM) for air, vessel and rail cargo and is still on track to deploy a truck EEM portal later this year, the agency said ahead of the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee’s June 26 meeting. COAC also issued one recommendation related to accelerated payments for certain drawback entries.
The House Appropriations Committee on June 25 unveiled a FY 2025 Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations Bill that would provide $186.7 million to the Bureau of Industry and Security, $4.3 million below the FY 2024 enacted level and $36.7 million below President Joe Biden’s budget request.
The House of Representatives this week plans to consider a bill that would impose sanctions on foreign persons who engage in or facilitate forced organ harvesting in China. Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., introduced the Falun Gong Protection Act in June 2023 (see 2306160009), and the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved it on a 33-0 vote later that month (see 2306260022).
The Biden administration is working with lawmakers on a bill that could give the Bureau of Industry and Security legal authority to restrict certain exports of artificial intelligence software to foreign adversaries, said Tarun Chhabra, the NSC’s senior director for technology and national security.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Ben Cardin, D-Md., and three other Democratic senators plan to introduce a bill to transfer authority over small arms exports from the Commerce Department back to the State Department, Cardin’s office announced June 21. The legislation is intended to stem the flow of U.S.-made weapons to drug cartels, gangs and other violent groups across the Western Hemisphere. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, introduced a similar bill last year (see 2312080066). The Trump administration transferred small arms export authority from State to Commerce in 2020 (see 2001170030).
Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Jim Risch, R-Idaho, and three other Republican senators have introduced a bill that would require the president to notify Congress before pausing arms deliveries to Israel, Risch’s office announced June 21.
The Treasury Department last week issued a set of proposed regulations that could introduce new prohibitions and notification requirements on U.S. investments in China, Hong Kong and Macau as the Biden administration works toward finalizing the new rules before year-end (see 2405080039). The proposed rule, which builds on an advance notice of proposed rulemaking Treasury issued in August (see 2308090066), outlines how the agency would implement new bans on certain types of outbound American investments in China’s semiconductor, quantum and artificial intelligence industries, as well as notification requirements for other, broader investments in China’s chip and AI sectors.
The House Select Committee on China is creating a working group to address China’s role as the world’s leading supplier of precursor chemicals for fentanyl, committee Chairman John Moolenaar, R-Mich., said in a statement June 20. Reps. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., and Jake Auchincloss, D-Mass., will lead the new group. A report the committee released in April said that Congress should approve tougher sanctions and import restrictions to stem the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. (see 2404160039). Many of the new measures recommended in the report would be aimed at China.
A government technical advisory committee is working on two reports about compliance challenges posed by the Bureau of Industry and Security's foreign direct product rule and its semiconductor export controls.
A new strategy by the Bureau of Industry and Security to add a set of addresses -- instead of company names -- to the Entity List could lead to screening challenges for exporters, industry officials told the agency this week.