House Foreign Affairs Committee Advances Bills on Houthis, FDP Rule
The House Foreign Affairs Committee on Feb. 6 approved a bill that would designate the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization following the Yemen-based group’s recent attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
Supporters of the bill, including committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said the Biden administration’s recent labeling of the Houthis as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (see 2401170025) did not go far enough and that additional sanctions are needed. Designating the group as an FTO would make it a crime to provide certain material support or resources to the Houthis.
Opponents of the bill, including Ranking Member Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., said the FTO designation would make it harder for humanitarian groups to operate in war-ravaged Yemen.
The committee also approved a bill that would codify the Commerce Department’s Iran Foreign Direct Product Rule, which prohibits foreign countries from transferring certain foreign-produced products to Iran if they are made with certain U.S. technology or software (see 2312140036). The prohibition in the proposed No Technology for Terror Act would apply to cameras, lasers, sensors and other technology that Iran uses to build drones and other weapon systems that are delivered to terrorist groups or Russia.
The committee approved both bills by voice vote. It was scheduled to conduct roll call votes on the bills later in the day.
The committee also debated a bill offered by Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., that would increase the dollar thresholds that trigger congressional notification for arms sales. A vote on the proposed Foreign Military Sales Technical, Industrial, and Governmental Engagement for Readiness (TIGER) Act was pending at the time of publication.
Waltz said the threshold has not been adjusted in 20 years and needs to be increased to account for inflation. Several Democrats, including Reps. Joaquin Castro of Texas, Sara Jacobs of California, Kathy Manning of North Carolina, and Dina Titus of Nevada, criticized his bill, saying Congress is not the cause of delays in the FMS process and that they want lawmakers to have more information on arms sales, not less, so they can conduct proper oversight.
Waltz’s bill is the first to result from a task force that he and Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., led to modernize the U.S. Foreign Military Sales program. The task force was unveiled in June 2023 (see 2306270027).
Due to a scheduling issue, the committee postponed consideration of an export control bill by Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Mo., which would, in part, give agencies other than the Commerce Department a stronger voice on the committee that reviews Entity List changes (see 2402010080). “We expect it to be back on the docket soon,” a committee spokesperson said.