The top Democrats on the oversight committees for the Bureau of Industry and Security are asking the agency for information about the Trump administration's plan to approve Nvidia H200 chip exports to China, including license applications, supporting documents and more.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is seeking public comments on an information collection related to “miscellaneous" licensing, reporting and enforcement activities associated with exports. BIS said it's revising the title of the information collection to include certain reporting activities.
The U.S. government is taking several steps to curb the transfer of U.S. firearms to drug cartels and other violent groups in Mexico, a State Department official told a congressional panel last week.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Dec. 19 again extended a general license that continues to delay an exemption that would authorize certain transactions related to Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., Venezuela’s state-owned energy company. General License 5T, which replaced GL 5S, now authorizes certain transactions with PdVSA involving an 8.5% bond on or after Feb. 3, 2026. The previous license was set to allow those transactions to occur on or after Dec. 20.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control last week sanctioned five adult family members of Carlos Erik Malpica Flores, a nephew of the wife of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
A bipartisan group of House members led by Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., co-chair of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, introduced a compromise Russia sanctions bill Dec. 18 that they hammered out through a flurry of year-end negotiations.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the Trump administration will recommend renewal of USMCA only if 20 issues can be resolved, and maybe more, as he told Congress this isn't an exhaustive list.
China has approved certain export license applications submitted by Chinese companies for shipments of controlled rare earths, a Ministry of Commerce spokesperson said Dec. 18.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., tried and failed Dec. 18 to have the Senate vote on a bill that could lead to additional sanctions on China for providing dual-use items to Russia’s war against Ukraine (see 2508020001).
Exodus Movement, the U.S. cryptocurrency trading software company that agreed to pay more than $3 million to the Office of Foreign Assets Control this week to resolve allegations that it violated U.S. sanctions on Iran (see 2512160053), said it "acknowledges and regrets its prior compliance shortcomings during an early period in the firm’s lifetime." A spokesperson said in an email that the firm has "since taken stringent countermeasures and invested millions of dollars to ensure these lapses never happen again. Exodus has fully collaborated with OFAC throughout the investigation and are glad to put this matter firmly behind us."