Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee said the State Department must submit to Congress any new deal reached with Iran over its nuclear commitments and allow lawmakers to “review and assess” it. The lawmakers said a potential U.S. return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action would “clearly” constitute a new deal and would require congressional review under the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., introduced a bill to prevent the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board from potentially investing federal civil servants’ retirement savings in companies on the Entity List. The Thrift Savings Plan Fiduciary Security Act would modify the FRTIB's duties by “incorporating a duty to not harm U.S. national security,” Rubio said June 10. Under the legislation, the board would not be allowed to invest in companies on the Commerce Department’s Entity List or companies designated by the Treasury Department as Chinese military companies. “The Board and their friends on Wall Street will get away with using American servicemembers’ own savings to fund threats to U.S. national security if the fiduciary duties binding these money managers only focus on short-term financial value,” Rubio said. “My legislation would update the Board’s fiduciary duty to more accurately reflect the interests of the TSP’s beneficiaries, rather than the financial interests of Wall Street.”

Rep. Devin Nunes of California, the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health, introduced a bill June 8 that would require a congressional vote before the U.S. could agree at the World Trade Organization to waive intellectual property rights on COVID-19 vaccines, a process known as a Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement waiver. The bill, H.R. 3788, “pushes back against the Biden Administration’s effort to surrender expensive American medical technology to foreign competitors,” Nunes said in a news release. “The Biden Administration’s support for surrendering intellectual property protections for American-made COVID-19 vaccines serves only to harm Americans and help hostile foreign powers like Communist China. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine a more self-defeating or unjust policy.”

The Senate voted 68-32 this week to approve a comprehensive China package that would authorize a host of measures to address trade and technology competition issues with China. The U.S Innovation and Competition Act of 2021 has provisions from both the Strategic Competition Act (see 2104210038) and the Endless Frontier Act (see 2105130025), including measures that would incentivize more domestic semiconductor manufacturing and research. President Joe Biden said June 8 that he looks forward to working with the House to pass the legislation and that he hopes to sign “it into law as soon as possible.”

Two senators asked the Treasury Department for an “immediate briefing” on steps the agency is taking to identify foreign banks doing business with sanctioned Chinese officials under the Hong Kong Autonomy Act. Sens. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., in their June 8 letter, also requested a briefing on Treasury efforts to target those banks through “evidentiary sanctions packages that can withstand scrutiny” in U.S. courts. In its latest report to Congress, required under the HKAA, Treasury said it hasn’t found evidence of any foreign banks facilitating “significant transactions” for the sanctioned officials (see 2105180032).

A bill that would establish both a carbon tax and a carbon border adjustment tax has been introduced in both the House and Senate. Rep. Marie Newman, D-Ill., said that the bill she sponsored "serves as one comprehensive plan to achieving critical reductions in greenhouse gas emissions while providing workers in declining energy sectors with a fair transition into new good-paying jobs. By investing in clean energy and embracing economy-wide carbon pricing, the plan will renew America’s leadership in technology and innovation while also building a sustainable future for all communities. "

More than 20 House Foreign Affairs Committee Republicans said they remain “deeply concerned” about the Biden administration's decision to waive sanctions against the company behind the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project (see 2105260019) and said they weren’t satisfied by the State Department’s justification. The lawmakers, including the committee’s top Republican, Rep. Mike McCaul of Texas, said the sanctions waiver contradicts the administration's “repeated public opposition” to the completion of the pipeline.

A House lawmaker recently introduced a bill that would add the U.S. agriculture secretary as a member of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. The Agricultural Security Risk Review Act, which has been previously introduced both in the House and Senate, would allow the U.S. Department of Agriculture to have input in investment transaction reviews, Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Okla., said May 20. The bill comes during a time when foregn ownership of U.S. agricultural businesses is “steadily” increasing, Lucas said. He called the move “long overdue.” “I know firsthand just how important our agriculture industry is, which is why Congress must remove the hurdles that keep USDA from having a permanent seat at the table with CFIUS’ review of foreign transactions," Lucas said.

Less than a week after a group of House Democrats introduced a resolution to block U.S. arms sales to Israel (see 2105240062), eight Republican senators said the sales should go through. The two sales, notified to Congress May 5, will help Israel defend itself “against Iran-backed Hamas terrorists,” said Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who introduced a May 26 resolution approving the sales along with Marco Rubio of Florida, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and others. Republican senators also urged the Biden administration not to provide Iran sanctions relief under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action while the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues (see 2105140027).

The two top Republicans on the House and Senate foreign affairs committees are asking for an explanation from the State Department for why it waived sanctions against the company behind the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project (see 2105200055). Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho and Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas said they are “very concerned and disappointed’ by the decision to not sanction Nord Stream 2 AG and asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken to “justify this decision in specific detail” before the House and Senate. “We strongly disagree that it is in the national interests of the United States to issue this waiver, as it will further enable Russian leverage over European allies’ energy supply,” the lawmakers said in a May 25 letter.