Lawmakers reintroduced a bipartisan bill in the Senate and House this week that could help the U.S. use sanctioned Russian assets to assist with Ukraine’s reconstruction efforts. The Rebuilding Economic Prosperity and Opportunity for Ukrainians Act also would block the release of sanctioned Russian funds until Moscow withdraws from Ukraine and agrees to provide compensation for the damage it caused, and it also would give the State Department more resources to coordinate with allies about confiscating Russian assets.
The Treasury Department should sanction Russian state-owned nuclear company Rosatom, a “major source of funds” for Moscow and “one of the only largely unsanctioned Russian energy companies,” said Gregory Meeks, the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s top Democrat. Meeks, speaking during a June 13 House Financial Services Committee hearing, pointed to his bill introduced last month that would require the administration to designate Rosatom (see 2305120015).
A bill that approves the Taiwan trade initiative, but says it cannot take effect until the administration submits an economic analysis of its effects and answers questions from Congress on implementation, passed out of the House Ways and Means Committee on a 42-0 vote.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen declined to say this week whether the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. would look into the Saudi-backed LIV Golf’s purchase of the PGA Tour despite several lawmakers urging CFIUS to review the deal. Yellen, speaking during a June 13 House Financial Services Committee hearing, said she couldn't comment on a potential review because there are “very strict rules of confidentiality,” but suggested the committee would review the acquisition if it implicated U.S. national security.
House Democrats introduced a bill last week that they said will help facilitate the transfer of two Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines from the U.S. to Australia as part of the Australia-U.K.-U.S. (AUKUS) partnership. The AUKUS Undersea Defense Act would also authorize “the training of Australian private sector defense personnel,” the lawmakers said.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week advanced a bipartisan bill that would require the administration to form a sanctions strategy that would be triggered if China invades Taiwan. The Taiwan Protection and National Resilience Act, reintroduced in March (see 2303300024), would require the several Cabinet agencies to submit a report to Congress describing a “comprehensive sanctions strategy” that the U.S and allies could adopt in response to an invasion. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., one of the authors of the bill, said Congress “must continue to closely monitor” China’s “hostile acts against our democratic ally and remain firm in our strategy to deter any aggression against Taiwan.”
Although the U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st Century Trade does not change tariffs, and therefore the administration says no legislative approval is needed, the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate committees that deal with trade have introduced a bill that would give it congressional approval.
Just after the administration asked the International Trade Commission to examine the emissions intensity of the steel and aluminum sectors, a bipartisan bill was introduced in the Senate to tell the Energy Department to conduct a comprehensive study of the emissions from the production of aluminum, cement, iron and steel, plastic, and products made from all those materials, fertilizer, glass, lithium-ion batteries, paper and pulp, solar panels and cells, wind turbines, crude oil, refined oil products, natural gas, hydrogen, refined critical minerals and uranium.
Republican Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and John Cornyn of Texas reintroduced a bill this week to expand U.S. foreign investment reviews to cover companies “working with genetic information.” The Genomics Expenditures and National Security Enhancement Act, originally introduced in 2021 (see 2105250022), would direct the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. to “rewrite its regulations” to require mandatory filings for any foreign investments that involve genetic information. CFIUS would be required to consult with the Department of Health and Human Services on any deal that involves a “genetic data transaction,” and would be required to include the Senate’s Select Committee on Intelligence and the Foreign Relations Committee in its briefings.
A bipartisan bill introduced in the Senate and House could lead to new sanctions on entities that process or trade Iranian oil, including through ship-to-ship transfers. The Stop Harboring Iranian Petroleum (SHIP) Act would also require the Biden administration to report on the “increase of exports of petroleum and petroleum products from Iran.”