Sen. Ted Cruz and Rep. Wesley Hunt, both R-Texas, reintroduced a bill last week aimed at ensuring that courts can't vacate previously authorized permits for liquefied natural gas export projects. The Protect LNG Act was referred to Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and the House Judiciary and Energy and Commerce committees. A Senate aide indicated in March that the legislation would be reintroduced (see 2503250003).
Senate Banking Committee ranking member Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., a member of the committee, told Nvidia May 28 that they’re concerned the U.S. AI chipmaker’s planned research facility in Shanghai “risks violating the spirit, if not the written word, of U.S. export control regulations.”
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, introduced a bill May 22 aimed at improving the sharing of advanced defense technology with Australia, Canada and the U.K.
Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., who chairs a House task force that is looking at ways to improve how the government handles arms sales (see 2501220086), introduced a bill May 23 that would raise the congressional notification thresholds for arms sales to adjust for inflation and geopolitical changes.
Matthew Olsen, who led DOJ’s National Security Division during the Biden administration, has joined WilmerHale as co-chair of the law firm's defense, national security and government contracts practice, he announced on LinkedIn. Olsen will advise on export controls, sanctions, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., government investigations, congressional oversight and more.
Although adopting a 50% rule for the Entity List could allow U.S. export controls to capture more bad actors, it could also cause unintended business consequences and may make it more challenging for the Bureau of Industry and Security to add companies to the list, said Matthew Axelrod, the agency’s former export enforcement chief.
The Democratic leaders of two key House committees said this week they’re “deeply concerned” about the Bureau of Industry and Security potentially pivoting away from traditional export control dialogues with allies and asked BIS to respond to oversight questions before the end of next week.
World Trade Organization members on May 27 elected chairpersons for the 14 subsidiary bodies under the Council for Trade in Goods, the WTO announced. They are:
Members of the EU Parliament's Committee on International Trade are in Washington this week to discuss political, trade and investment relations between the U.S. and the EU. The delegation, led by committee Chair Bernd Lange of Germany, will hold meetings May 27-29 with various U.S. agencies, lawmakers, business groups, trade union representatives, think tanks and academia. They will specifically talk about "how the tariffs imposed by the US administration are being applied, how business is adapting to the tariffs and how can EU-US trade tensions be eased moving forward," Parliament said.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, applauded the Trump administration's decision last week to lift sanctions on Syria and urged the U.S. to help advance democracy in the country. "This is a positive step that will help Syria build a stable future," she said. "As we continue to lift restrictions, it is critical that we also increase our engagement with the Syrian authorities to help advance long-term stability, democracy and a more secure and prosperous future for the Syrian people and the region.”