The House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday advanced, with bipartisan support, legislation that would impose new sanctions on individuals and entities involved in Iran’s oil trade and hostage-taking and those involved in Houthi piracy.

At the same time, the House Homeland Security Committee advanced bipartisan bills aimed at countering authoritarian regimes targeting dissidents in the United States and monitoring terrorist threats in Syria.

In the Foreign Affairs Committee, the Enhanced Iran Sanctions Act, led by Reps. Mike Lawler (R-NY) and Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL), imposes sanctions on those involved in the export, sale or processing of Iranian petrochemical products, including banks and financial institutions, insurance providers, ship-flagging registries, pipeline builders and operators of processing facilities. The legislation would primarily target institutions in China.

“My bill before us today … will give the Trump administration the tools it needs to end the Iranian oil trade once and for all,” Lawler said. “Without these enablers, the regime’s oil operation will collapse, and that’s what we’re counting on.”

Cherfilus-McCormick said that the legislation “helps restore [U.S.] leverage” over Iran. “This is a targeted approach that strikes at the heart of the regime’s ability to fund terror and repression without closing the door to engagement, if and when Iran is ready for that course.”

The committee approved the bill by a voice vote, indicating no serious opposition to the legislation within the committee. The bill has close to 200 cosponsors.

The committee approved for a second time the No Paydays for Hostage-Takers Act, a bipartisan bill aimed at cracking down on Iran’s practice of taking and ransoming American hostages. The bill passed the House by a 391-34 vote in the previous Congress.

The legislation would tighten restrictions on Iranian diplomats traveling to the United Nations headquarters in New York, barring individuals who have been sanctioned under U.S. terrorism and weapons of mass destruction sanctions from entering the country.

It also requires the administration to review and potentially impose sanctions on any individual involved in the abduction and detention of Americans. The U.N. travel ban would also extend to these sanctions.

The bill would further instruct the secretary of state to determine whether to ban travel by U.S. passport holders to Iran, in light of the abductions of some U.S. citizens in the country.

An amendment proposed by Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-CA) to remove the section on barring U.S. citizen travel to Iran was defeated in a party-line vote. Jacobs argued that the provision would unfairly penalize American citizens. 

The bill advanced through the committee by a 45-6 vote, with Reps. Joaquin Castro (D-TX), Dina Titus (D-NV), Sara Jacobs (D-CA), Sydney Kamlager Dove (D-CA), Kweisi Mfume (D-MD) and Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) voting against it.

The Sanction Sea Pirates Act, led by Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-IL), was approved as part of a bipartisan en-bloc package with other bills. It imposes sanctions on any individual the administration “determines knowingly engages in piracy,” freezing their assets and barring entry into the United States. 

Committee Chairman Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) said that the sanctions regime is purposefully broad, targeting those involved in providing financing and intelligence for the Houthis, an approach he said could deal with some of the Houthi affiliates who are not being targeted with military strikes.

Jackson said the legislation was prompted by classified briefings on the Houthis and other pirate threats.

Meanwhile, the House Homeland Security Committee advanced a series of bills designed to combat transnational repression by U.S. adversaries — the targeting of dissidents from those adversary countries who are located in the United States.

The bills include Rep. August Pfluger’s (R-TX) Countering Transnational Repression Act, which would create an office inside the Department of Homeland Security to counter such activities; Rep. Gabe Evans’ (R-CO) Law Enforcement Support and Counter Transnational Repression Act, which would launch a public education campaign and FBI hotline on transnational repression; and Rep. Seth Magainzer’s (D-RI) Strengthening State and Local Efforts to Combat Transnational Repression Act, which provides training to state and local law enforcement on responding to transnational repression.

All three bills advanced by voice votes. Congressional interest in combating transnational repression has been driven in part by Iranian efforts to target and assassinate dissidents abroad.

The Homeland Security Committee also advanced the Syria Terrorism Threat Assessment Act, led by Rep. Morgan Luttrell (R-TX), which requires the Department of Homeland Security to assess the threat posed to the United States by terrorists in Syria.

The bill also advanced by a voice vote.