Sens. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and John Fetterman, D-Pa., introduced a bill March 21 that would prohibit the sale of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve to “foreign adversaries,” including China, Cuba, Iran, Russia, Syria and Venezuela. The proposed “Banning Oil Exports to Foreign Adversaries Act” seeks to prevent “anti-democratic regimes” from winning public auctions that the Energy Department holds to sell excess oil from the reserve, Ernst’s office said.

Reps. Darin LaHood, R-Ill., and Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, both members of the House Ways and Means Committee, announced last week that they have sent two letters to the Biden administration calling for more action to promote U.S. biofuel exports.

The Ocean Shipping Reform Implementation Act, which gives the Federal Maritime Commission power to investigate allegations against shipping exchanges, passed the House March 21 by a vote of 393-24. It also directs the FMC to establish standards for price indexes published by shipping exchanges, such as the Shanghai Shipping Exchange.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee voted 28-22 this week to approve a bill that would impose property-blocking sanctions on Chinese Communist Party leaders for committing human rights violations.

Members of Congress who spoke during the House Agriculture Committee's March 20 hearing on China highlighted several proposals to restrict the communist country’s increasing acquisition of American agricultural land.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 12-9 on March 20 to approve President Joe Biden’s nomination of Erik Woodhouse to be head of the State Department’s Office of Sanctions Coordination. Eleven Democrats and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., supported the nomination, while nine Republicans were opposed. The committee’s ranking member, Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, has threatened to try to block the nomination when it goes to the full Senate, citing Woodhouse's role in the Biden administration's decision not to sanction the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline project while Russia was threatening to invade Ukraine (see 2403070046).

The House on March 19 passed, by voice vote, a bill that would require that certain export licensing disputes be resolved by a majority vote of the government's interagency Operating Committee for Export Policy. Those disputes are currently resolved by the Operating Committee chair, who is a Bureau of Industry and Security employee.

The House on March 19 passed a bill that would impose property-blocking sanctions on foreign persons who undermine the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended the Bosnian War.

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., on March 18 renewed calls for Congress to vote on his bill that would direct the U.S. to impose sanctions on anyone who provides support to someone in Cuba's military, security sector or intelligence sector (see 2110150019).

Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Mich., marked National Agriculture Day on March 19 by urging Congress to pass a bill that would prohibit foreign nationals associated with the Chinese government from buying American farmland.