Exporters will have at least another month to digest the Bureau of Industry and Security's recently updated semiconductor export controls before the agency issues clarifications and corrections.
Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, is urging Congress to revisit legislation that would require U.S. firms to report outbound investments that could threaten American national security.
A bipartisan group of four senators introduced a bill that would impose sanctions on foreign banks and foreign cryptocurrency firms that do business with terrorist organizations such as Hamas.
Four House Democrats introduced a bill aimed at curbing the flow of U.S. firearms to drug cartels, gangs and other violent groups in the Caribbean and Latin America.
The U.S., the U.K. and Canada last week issued a range of new sanctions to mark the internationally recognized Human Rights Day on Dec. 10, designating people across more than 10 jurisdictions for their ties to human rights violations. They include U.S. sanctions against Chinese officials with ties to human rights abuses in Xinjiang, including one designated under the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act.
A conference report on the 2024 defense spending bill released this week by House and Senate negotiators said the legislation won’t include a polarizing measure that could have led to new guardrails around U.S. outbound investments into China. The leaders of the Senate and House Armed Services committees ultimately decided to leave out the provision in the compromise version of the National Defense Authorization Act despite the fact that it passed as part of Senate’s version of the NDAA in July (see 2307280052).
The Bureau of Industry and Security needs to overhaul its export control policies to stem the flow of U.S. national security technology that is fueling China’s military modernization, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said in a report marking the end of a 90-day review of the agency (see 2210030068).
The Commerce Department is accepting nominations for its Advisory Committee on Supply Chain Competitiveness, it said. Commerce "seeks members who, by virtue of their current roles and past experience, bring a track record of effective senior executive leadership on issues impacting the U.S. and global supply chains," the agency said. Applications will be accepted until Jan. 2. Commerce is seeking members for the current two-year term, which ends Nov. 8, 2025.
The Bureau of Industry and Security’s recent 90-day pause in issuing commercial firearms export licenses will financially harm companies, especially small ones, that rely on foreign sales for income, according to a letter five Republican members of the House Small Business Committee sent to BIS.
Three days after Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo suggested her Bureau of Industry and Security needs more funding to handle a surge in export licensing requests (see 2312040041), three key House Republicans said on Dec. 5 that BIS must strengthen its export controls before they will support a budget increase for the agency.