Senate Banking Committee ranking member Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., urged her fellow lawmakers Feb. 24 to oppose attempts to unwind measures that are designed to pressure Russia to seek peace with Ukraine. Following Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. imposed sanctions and export controls on Russia and provided arms to Ukraine, noted Warren, who said in a statement that she’s concerned President Donald Trump will make unwarranted concessions to Russian President Vladimir Putin in a bid to end the war. Instead of easing up on Moscow, the Trump administration should be heading off Russia’s attempts to evade U.S. sanctions with the help of China, Iran and North Korea, she said.
The U.S. this week sanctioned more than 30 people, entities and ships helping to sell and move Iranian petroleum products, including oil brokers in the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong, tanker managers in India and China, and Iranian oil officials. The Treasury Department said the newly designated tankers have helped ship tens of millions of barrels of Iranian crude oil worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The Trump administration has ended a Biden administration policy requiring recipients of U.S. foreign military aid to provide written assurances that they will use those weapons in accordance with international humanitarian law, the Washington Post reported Feb. 24.
Matt Borman, a longtime senior career official overseeing export control regulations at the Bureau of Industry and Security, is expected to leave BIS soon, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Senate Banking Committee ranking member Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., urged the Commerce Department this week to decline to give the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) access to confidential business data, including information disclosed in export license applications filed with the Bureau of Industry and Security.
A new White House memo on President Donald Trump’s “America-first investment policy” previews efforts to expand both inbound and outbound foreign investment restrictions, tamp down on the use of mitigation agreements, fast-track investment deals from certain allies and more.
John Eisenberg, former legal adviser to the National Security Council who served during the first Trump administration, is President Donald Trump's pick to lead DOJ’s National Security Division, DOJ announced last week. Eisenberg also previously held several roles within DOJ, including in the office of the deputy attorney general. If confirmed, Eisenberg will oversee the division that prosecutes various export control, sanctions, foreign investment and other national security-related violations.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch, R-Idaho, welcomed the Trump administration’s designation of eight Latin America-based criminal groups as foreign terrorists. “I support the Trump Administration's efforts to use every tool at its disposal to combat the scourge of illicit narcotics & the cartels profiting from the damage they’re doing to Idaho communities,” Risch tweeted Feb. 20, the same day the State Department announced the designations (see 2502190011).
The Bureau of Industry and Security’s ongoing export control policy review is likely to result in an initial set of recommendations involving advanced technology exported to China, Akin Gump said last week.
Any potential U.S.-Russia agreement to end the war in Ukraine will likely take at least a year to come to fruition, researchers and policy experts said, although some U.S. sanctions could be lifted in the meantime.