Senator Kennedy said he would introduce the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act (HFCAA) as an amendment to the Defense Authorization bill, and he did, but the Senate never took up his amendment.
So the HFCAA bill, which passed the Senate by unanimous consent, still awaits action in the House. Kennedy’s gambit was to attach the bill to must pass legislation like the Defense Authorization Bill, but apparently senate leaders did not think that was a good idea.
Perhaps Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wanted to wait for the administration’s report that is due on August 3 that will recommend how to deal with China and US securities markets. Perhaps he delayed because of concerns that the bill hurts Americans more than Chinese. Or perhaps rumored SEC pushback on the bill and recommendations for changes to protect multinationals were a factor.
I don’t expect the house to take action until after the August 3 report and based on the poor state of relations between the US and China we could see action very quickly after that.