Ruchi Gill, former deputy chief counsel for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, joined Latham & Watkins as counsel in its Washington, D.C.-based white collar defense and investigations 'practice, the firm announced. Gill also will serve as a member of the litigation and trial department. She will advise clients on national security regulatory matters, including proceedings at the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., export controls and economic sanctions, the firm said.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a California district court ruling dismissing a case brought by investors in U.S. semiconductor developer Qualcomm over an alleged scheme by the American company to illegally block Singapore firm Broadcom's bid to take over Qualcomm. Investors had argued Qualcomm had improperly lobbied lawmakers and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. to block the acquisition.
Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and 27 Republican colleagues, introduced a bill that would require the administration to impose Magnitsky Act sanctions if any member or person associated with the International Olympic Committee supported "a gross violation of internationally recognized human rights" against any Olympic or Paralympic Winter games participant. However, the president can choose not to impose sanctions if he determines that a waiver is in the country's national security interests. The text of the bill, which was published Feb. 10, says that participants aren't just athletes -- they can be spectators, members of the press, "government and private officials ... and persons involved in economic activity related to the Games."
BIS is preparing to “soon” issue another set of export controls that will cover both emerging and foundational technologies, said Matt Borman, the Bureau of Industry and Security’s deputy assistant secretary of export administration. The controls, briefly mentioned by a senior BIS official last month (see 2201280045), would represent the first set of formal export restrictions over foundational technologies since Congress passed the Export Control Reform Act in 2018.
The Senate on Feb. 9 voted to confirm Reta Jo Lewis as president of the Export-Import Bank. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, chair of the Senate Banking Committee, said Lewis "will put American workers and exporters first" and understands that Ex-Im "is vital to manufacturing jobs and our nation’s economic competitiveness."
The White House this week released an updated list of critical and emerging technology categories that are important to national security, including a new subset of “novel, advanced technologies” for each category. The updated list, first issued in 2020 as part of a national strategy to better coordinate agency efforts amid technology competition with China (see 2010150038), will help guide “new and existing efforts to promote U.S. technological leadership,” the White House said. The list could intersect with work being done by the Bureau of Industry and Security, which is crafting export controls over various emerging and foundational technologies as part of the Export Control Reform Act (see 2201280045). Similarly, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. may be more inclined to scrutinize transactions involving sensitive and emerging technologies (see 2112140011).
The American Nuclear Infrastructure Act of 2021 could help make U.S. nuclear exporters more competitive, especially when competing with China, said Maria Korsnick, CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute, speaking during a Feb. 9 Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing. She said the bill would “empower” the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to “focus on nuclear energy export and innovation activities.”
Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., told a virtual audience Feb. 9 hosted by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations that there are more members of Congress who want to punish China or decouple from its economy than there are those who see themselves as trying to salvage the relationship.
Australia’s Parliament officially began considering the text of the Australia-U.K. Free Trade Agreement this week and is inviting public comments on the deal, Australia said Feb. 8. The Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Treaties will accept submissions through March 18. The deal is the first trade agreement negotiated from scratch by the U.K. since it left the European Union, and is expected to drop tariffs on a range of goods (see 2112170016).
Republican senators urged the Biden administration to get Senate approval for any potential nuclear deal with Iran, or risk Congress overturning the deal at the start of the next administration. The lawmakers, including Jim Risch of Idaho and Marco Rubio of Florida, the top Republicans on the Senate’s Foreign Relations and Intelligence committees, respectively, said the administration is required to seek Senate approval under the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015. Any deal reached with Iran not ratified by the Senate “is subject to being reversed, and indeed will likely be torn up, in the opening days of the next Presidential administration, as early as January 2025,” more than 30 senators said in a Jan. 7 letter to the White House. The lawmakers said they will use their “full range of options and leverage available to United States Senators to ensure that you meet those obligations,” and the “implementation of any agreement will be severely if not terminally hampered if you do not.” The White House didn’t comment. The administration last week restored an Iran-related sanctions waiver that it hopes will bring the sides closer to a deal (see 2202070035), which could ease a range of U.S. sanctions against Iran.