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.
Three Senate committee chairs urged the Biden administration last week to sanction the Amana organization, an Israeli settlement group in the West Bank, for fomenting violence against Palestinian civilians.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., introduced six joint resolutions of disapproval last week that would block the sale of more than $20 billion in U.S. military equipment to Israel, including bombs, fighter jets, ground vehicles, mortar rounds and tank ammunition.
Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and John Cornyn, R-Texas, introduced a bill last week that they said would ensure courts cannot vacate previously authorized permits for liquefied natural gas projects.
Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., introduced bills last week aimed at curbing U.S. investment in China.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which has held two hearings this year on U.S. computing chips ending up in Russian weapons, plans to hold more hearings on the subject, its chairman said last week.
More than 60 Senate and House Democrats on Sept. 27 called on the Biden administration, including the Bureau of Industry and Security, to take more steps to stop the illegal trafficking of U.S.-made guns to Haiti.
A hearing about the Time to Choose Act, a bipartisan bill that would ban consultants and other service providers from working both with the U.S. government and Chinese-owned companies, Senate Homeland Security Committee ranking member Rand Paul, R-Ky., said he agreed with a witness who said it could create a slippery slope.
More than 70 members of the House of Representative are asking the administration to ask the European Union to delay its deforestation reporting requirements, which they say would be impossible to meet for wood chips and fluff pulp, used in menstrual pads and diapers.
While Congress began a long recess this week without passing Venezuela legislation, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere said lawmakers might address the matter when they reconvene in mid-November.