House Foreign Affairs Committee leaders reacted differently to the sanctions the Biden administration announced this week against Algoney Hamdan Daglo Musa, the procurement director of Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia group, which is fighting the Sudanese Armed Forces.

Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, urged the Biden administration late Oct. 7 to impose “robust” sanctions on the leaders of Sudan’s two warring parties for what his office called “gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.”

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said last week he welcomes a renewed call by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to pass legislation restricting outbound investment in China. McCaul tweeted that he will help Johnson “get these efforts across the finish line.”

Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, urged his colleagues last week to approve his Strategic Act, a wide-ranging China bill that contains several export control, sanctions and foreign investment provisions, including creation of a “tiger team” to start identifying targets for sanctions, export controls and other economic measures “well before China takes military action” against Taiwan.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, urged the Biden administration last week to stop blocking the transfer of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel, saying such large weapons are “operationally necessary” to strike deeply buried bunkers and tunnels used by Israel's enemies.

Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., introduced a bill last week that he said would allow Homeland Security Investigations to focus on fighting crime such as illegal trafficking and arms smuggling.

Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, introduced a bill last week that would prohibit U.S. natural gas from being exported to a foreign country with the intent of further exporting the gas through a foreign liquefied natural gas terminal.

A bipartisan group of four senators announced this week that they will introduce a bill that would require the Biden administration to develop a “comprehensive strategy” to use sanctions and other tools to protect civilians from Sudan’s "brutal" civil war.

Senate Banking Committee ranking member Tim Scott, R-S.C., and Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., asked the Federal Reserve this week to explain how it reportedly failed to prevent money from flowing to U.S.-sanctioned entities, including Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., reintroduced a bill that would require the Federal Trade Commission, in consultation with the Commerce Department, to write a report on the effects of foreign investment in U.S. pharmaceutical supply chains. The senators said their bill would provide information that would help the U.S. reduce its dependence on potentially unreliable imports, including ingredients used in generic drugs. The United States Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Review Act was referred to the Senate Banking Committee.