The Treasury Department included its Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (TFI) in the Trump administration’s hiring freeze but is now considering giving it relief from the pause due to its national security role, the department told lawmakers.
The U.S. should tighten export controls on advanced artificial intelligence chips and bolster security requirements for frontier AI labs, which will slow American adversaries from developing their own AI technologies and keep the U.S. in the lead, AI research and development firm Anthropic told the White House this month.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch, R-Idaho, and ranking member Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., introduced a bill last week aimed at curbing China’s export of fentanyl precursor chemicals to Mexican drug traffickers.
A House Republican proposal to pass a temporary government spending measure, or continuing resolution (CR), for the rest of FY 2025 would prevent Congress from weighing in on export control policy, such as by opposing the easing of restrictions on Russia, according to a memo released March 8 by Senate Appropriations Committee ranking member Patty Murray, D-Wash.
House Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar, R-Mich., asked the Bureau of Industry and Security to brief his panel on how it's restricting China’s access to U.S. university supercomputers.
The Bureau of Industry needs better resources and technology, and the semiconductor industry needs better tracking tools, to prevent China from illegally receiving and accessing advanced chip technology, a researcher told a BIS advisory committee this week.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, reintroduced a bill March 6 to authorize the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. to review foreign purchases or leases of American farmland that exceed $5 million or 320 acres. The Foreign Agricultural Restrictions to Maintain Local Agriculture and National Defense (FARMLAND) Act was referred to the Senate Agriculture Committee and the House Agriculture, Financial Services, Foreign Affairs, and Energy and Commerce committees.
Sens. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., and Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., reintroduced a bill March 6 that would bar individuals and entities controlled by China, Russia, Iran and North Korea from buying agricultural land and businesses near U.S. military bases or other sensitive sites. The Promoting Agriculture Safeguards and Security (PASS) Act would also add USDA to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. for agricultural transactions. The bill, whose co-sponsors include Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., was referred to the Senate Banking Committee.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., reintroduced a bill March 5 that would authorize sanctions on the Yemen-based Houthis for human rights abuses, including unlawful killing, torture, prolonged and arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, hostage-taking of U.S. nationals abroad, use of child soldiers and gender-based discrimination.
Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, reintroduced a bill March 5 to prevent a U.S. president from blocking crude oil exports without an economic security or national security reason. The Continuing Robust and Unhibited Drilling and Exporting (CRUDE) Act was referred to the House Foreign Affairs Committee.