The top lawmakers on the House Select Committee on China urged the Commerce Department to strengthen its Oct. 7 China chip controls, saying Chinese firms have “identified workarounds.” In a letter last week to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Reps. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., said the interim final rule’s threshold for the “bidirectional transfer rate of 600 Gbyte/s should be lowered sufficiently to prevent clever engineering that bypasses the regulations.” They also said the rule, which will be updated in the coming months when finalized by the Bureau of Industry and Security (see 2307260071), should address Chinese firms using cloud computing services to “outsource their advanced computing needs” and evade the export controls (see 2303210037 and 2305160092).

A Senate bill with bipartisan support could lead to new human rights sanctions on top Iranian government officials, including its supreme leader and its president. The Mahsa Amini Human Rights and Security Accountability Act, introduced last week by Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Alex Padilla, D-Calif., would require the administration to report on people in Iran responsible for human rights violations, including against Iranians protesting last year's death of Amini, who died in the custody of the country’s morality police. The bill would require the administration to impose “applicable sanctions” on people identified in the report.

The Haiti Criminal Collusion Transparency Act, a bill that requires the State Department to report on ties between criminal gangs and political and economic elites in Haiti (see 2302140049 and 2303280040), and asks the administration to impose sanctions based on what it finds, passed the House by voice vote July 25.

The Senate this week voted to attach amendments to its version of the FY 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, including one that could establish a notification regime for certain outbound investments and another that could ban China, Russia, North Korea and Iran from investing in American farmland and agricultural businesses.

A bill that sets a 10-year statute of limitation for violating sanctions under either the Trading with the Enemy Act or the International Emergency Economic Powers Act passed the House July 25.

House Republicans introduced a bill last week that would prevent the administration from renewing a general license authorizing certain transactions related to earthquake relief efforts in Syria. The bill would also require the Treasury, State and Commerce departments to notify Congress of any change to the Syria Sanctions Regulations “no more than 15 days prior to the change taking effect.”

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla, introduced a bill this week that could lead to new export controls on certain U.S. “genetic technology” destined to China. The Stopping Genetic Monitoring by China Act would add various types of “genetic sampling and testing kits, analytical technology, and software” to the Bureau of Industry and Security’s Commerce Control List, including:

Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., last week announced his proposed amendments to the Senate’s version of the FY 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, including several trade and sanctions-related bills.

A Senate bill with bipartisan support could continue U.S. sanctions on Iran’s missile and drone program after the potential October sunset of U.N. Security Council restrictions against that country. The Making Iran Sanctions Stick in Lieu of Expiration of Sanctions Act, introduced by Sens. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., would ensure that Iran’s missile development activities remain subject to “appropriate U.S. sanctions in the likely event that Russia and China block an extension of UN restrictions in the Security Council” later this year.

The Senate last week approved an amendment to its version of the FY 2024 National Defense Authorization Act that would restrict certain U.S. petroleum exports from being shipped to certain foreign “adversaries.” The amendment, which was approved 85-12, would specifically prohibit U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve sales to any entity “under the ownership or control” of the Chinese, Russian, North Korean or Iranian governments, with certain exceptions for national security reasons.