On the last day of the current Congress, retiring Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, introduced a bill that would ask the Commerce Department and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to analyze the economic integration between the U.S. and China in priority sectors, and the U.S. government's views of how that integration should change over the next five to 19 years.
Lawmakers are again expressing concern about the U.S. national security review of TikTok (see 2211230033), saying they fear the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. will allow the app to continue operating in the U.S. without divesting itself from its Chinese owner Bytedance.
A new Senate bill could condition the removal of U.S. sanctions against Venezuela based on a “standards-based transition to democratic order.” The bill, introduced by Sens. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., would maintain “current sanctions” on Venezuela “until there is a transition to democracy” and would require the U.S. to assess whether President Nicolas Maduro's regime should be designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization or a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. The bill also “reaffirms” that U.S. aid to Venezuela shouldn’t be restricted “except if there is a risk such aid could be used to torture or in activities related to illicit narcotics and mining.”
Two lawmakers asked the Biden administration this week to begin negotiations on trade deals with Ecuador and Uruguay. Trade agreements with both countries would “capitalize on the bipartisan momentum and success” of USMCA, said Sens. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and Rob Portman, R-Ohio.
Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, the former House Ways and Means Committee chairman who is retiring from Congress at the end of the month, told reporters in a farewell press conference that he thinks, with divided government, the administration will not be able to impose its will in trade and international tax policies by avoiding tariff reductions.
House Ways and Means Committee ranking member Kevin Brady, R-Texas, who is retiring at the end of this Congress, and outgoing New Democrats Chair Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., introduced a resolution that asks the U.S. trade representative to re-launch negotiations at the World Trade Organization to liberalize trade in environmental goods.
A bipartisan bill could place new sanctions on Huawei and other Chinese technology companies by adding them to the Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Nationals List. The bill, introduced in the Senate this week by Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.; Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.; Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.; and Rick Scott, R-Fla., would impose financial sanctions on “untrustworthy Chinese 5G producers who engage in economic espionage against the United States,” the lawmakers said, and “effectively freeze them” from using the U.S. financial system. Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., introduced a companion bill in the House.
U.S. lawmakers unveiled legislation this week that would block certain transactions with TikTok or other social media companies under the influence of China, Russia and several other foreign countries. The Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party Act, introduced in the Senate by Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and in the House by Reps. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., “would protect Americans by blocking and prohibiting all transactions” with TikTok, the lawmakers said.
Technology competition with China, including U.S. foreign direct investment reviews, will be part of the oversight priorities of the Republican-controlled House during the next Congress, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California said last week.
Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., speaking at an event hosted by Punchbowl News, asserted he will be the next chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, not Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla.