House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Jim Risch, R-Idaho, called on the Biden administration April 30 to revoke its new arms transfer policy, saying it duplicates human rights safeguards in existing law.

Reps. Chris Smith, R-N.J., and Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., introduced a bill last week that would expand the list of sanctionable offenses for human rights violations against Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang region. The added offenses would include forced sterilization, forced abortions, forced organ harvesting and seeking the forced deportations of Uyghurs from third countries. The proposed Uyghur Genocide Accountability and Sanctions Act would also authorize secondary sanctions on business and government entities that aid human rights abuses in Xinjiang. Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., introduced a similar bill last year (see 2305310024).

Reps. Dina Titus, D-Nev., and Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., introduced a bill last week that would require the Biden administration to review whether 44 Azerbaijani officials should face Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act sanctions following the “ethnic cleansing” of Armenians from the Artsakh area and the “violent repression” of political opposition.

Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Roger Marshall, R-Kan., urged the Biden administration April 29 to counter Russia’s use of cryptocurrency to evade U.S. financial sanctions and buy high-tech weaponry for its war against Ukraine.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., urged the Commerce Department last week to immediately revoke all export licenses to China’s Huawei, saying the Bureau of Industry and Security is allowing a foreign adversary's company to obtain too much advanced U.S. technology.

Sens. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., in a letter called on President Joe Biden to increase enforcement of Iran sanctions, especially in the lucrative oil and gas sector, to reduce the revenue Tehran has available to “fund aggression and terrorism in the Middle East and beyond,” the lawmakers said last week.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., criticized the Biden administration April 25 for reportedly planning to sanction a battalion of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for alleged human rights violations against Palestinians in the West Bank (see 2404220047). Rubio said in a statement that the designation would “stigmatize the entire IDF” and “encourage” terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah and their Iranian government backers.

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, and four Democratic senators urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to reverse a district court judge’s ruling that the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) is unconstitutional.

Correction: Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said at an April 17 Senate Finance Committee hearing on the administration's trade agenda that a whistleblower found “unsanitary conditions and rampant labor abuses” in the Indian shrimp industry, asking whether CBP would take action (see 2404170074).

Four congressional committee leaders urged the Biden administration on April 19 to consider sanctioning Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and its leader, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commonly known as Hemedti, for human rights violations.