[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 125 (Friday, September 29, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10503-S10504]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ISSUES BEFORE THE SENATE
Mr. SANTORUM. Mr. President, I rise to talk about a couple of issues
that I think are very important. One I will get to in a minute, the
pending legislation before us, the issue of immigration, illegal
immigration, and what we are trying to do to combat that in the Senate.
Today, I am very hopeful that with the proper cooperation, we can get
this done today and over to the President in the next 48 hours to begin
the process of securing the border and dealing with an issue that may
be the No. 1 issue in my State right now. I probably hear about this
issue of illegal immigration from casual contact with my constituents
in grocery stores, the train station, et cetera. I have more people
asking me about the issue of illegal immigration than any other issue
we deal with.
It is remarkable in the sense that if you talk to folks here in
Washington and the ``experts'' in the media, this is not important to
people. Particularly, you would think in a State such as Pennsylvania,
which is miles away from the southern border but not too far from the
northern border, this would not be an important issue. But it is an
important issue. It is one that I am very pleased the Senate is going
to deal with today after, I think, making a misstep in the previous
consideration of illegal immigration legislation. We have now taken a
step in the right direction, a step where we put the horse before the
cart instead of the cart before the horse. So I am very excited about
that. I will mention that in a moment.
There is one issue I wanted to get to. It is an issue the leader
spoke about last night, the issue of Iran and the Iran Freedom and
Support Act, which was passed in the House of Representatives
yesterday. The House negotiated--and many of us in the Senate were
involved, as well as the White House--and worked on an extension of the
Iran-Libya Sanctions Act, to update that act, which needed to be done,
and to take into consideration the change in dynamics in Libya and the
change in dynamics with respect to Iran.
There is no country that I see on the horizon that is more dangerous
to the national security of this country, in my opinion, than the
country of Iran--not just to the national security of this country but
the safety and security of the world. We need to have a better regime
of sanctions as well as a better overall policy for dealing with Iran
than what we have today in the ILSA, or Iran Libya Sanctions Act.
The House of Representatives, on a bipartisan basis, worked on the
legislation, again, with the administration, which previously had
opposed the Iran Freedom and Support Act, a bill that has 61 cosponsors
here in the Senate, which we debated earlier this year. They took
elements of that bill and the companion bill in the House, offered by
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen from Florida. Working together with several House
and Senate committees and with the administration, they were able to
come up with a compromise and, again, many of us in the Senate worked
with the administration and the House in crafting this. We were able to
pass a bill that got so much support, they didn't even have to take a
record vote on it. It passed by consent over there. That tells you the
kind of strong support the bill enjoys. It was a bill authored by Tom
Lantos and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and the chairman and ranking member of
one of the committees of jurisdiction, the International Relations
Committee, were on the legislation and, again, it passed yesterday
unanimously. That bill now is sitting on the floor of the Senate, at
the desk.
The leader mentioned last night that it is our intent to bring this
legislation up and to try to pass it in the Senate. We did not, last
night, ask consent to do that because we were made aware there might be
concerns on the other side of the aisle with respect to some of the
provisions. We wanted to give ample opportunity to have the other side
go through the legislation.
Again, I state that this is not a new issue. I know the Democratic
leader got up today and suggested that there have been no hearings on
the bill and there hasn't really been a discussion on the bill. I will
tell you that just within the last year, the following hearings were
held:
There was an ILSA reauthorization hearing in the Banking Committee,
June 22; a terrorist threat hearing in the Homeland Security Committee,
November 15 of last year; a nuclear Iran hearing, Foreign Relations
Committee, March 2; response to nuclear Iran, Foreign Relations,
September 19 of this year; Iran's nuclear and political ambitions, a
two-part hearing, May 17 and 18 of this year; Iran's nuclear program/
intelligence, Foreign Relations Committee, May 11.
In addition, as I mentioned, the Senate fully debated for 3 days the
amendment I had offered to the National Defense Authorization Act back
in June of this year. We debated that amendment for 3 days. We had a
vote on the Senate floor. We had a full discussion of all of the
provisions in the act, many of which, as I mentioned before, have been
dropped. But many of the provisions that were debated were added to
this bill--the ones that were noncontroversial. Things that were
controversial were adapted to make them noncontroversial.
To suggest that somehow this is a brandnew piece of legislation, we
haven't seen this before, there haven't been any hearings, we don't
know anything about it, is just not accurate. We have had a full
debate.
This is an important issue. For the United States Senate, for the
Congress, the President to speak out on the issue of Iran at this time
is critical as we confront, as we saw from a couple weeks ago, the
machinations at the United Nations and President Ahmadinejad up there
saber rattling as he does a little bit at the United Nations, but he is
rattling sabers and all other types of weaponry in front of the people
of Iran when he goes home and he speaks in his native language.
This is a very serious and dangerous threat. It is without question
the principal reason we are having increased problems in Afghanistan
and Iraq, because of the influence of Iran. Iran is there with fighters
from Iran, with money and support, weaponry from Iran to foment
sectarian violence. One of the reasons we are having the level of
sectarian violence that we see there is because of Iran and its stated
intention of being the dominant view in the Islamic world. The clash
between Shia and Sunni is front and center in the ideology of the
ruling mullahs of Iran and the President of Iran, Ahmadinejad. This is
what their objective is. It is part and parcel of their own war within
their religion, but it is also part of their strategy of destabilizing
Iraq so democracy cannot flourish because if democracy flourishes, then
it is an opportunity for moderate Islam to win the day over the
fanatics who are trying to destroy that religion and destroy the world.
This is a vitally important issue for the Senate to bring up, I think
no more important issue than for us to deal with this real threat, as I
said on the floor a couple of weeks ago, I think the greatest threat
that has ever faced this country and the world. If we do not act now
when this threat is in its nascent stage, we risk cataclysmic
consequences by not confronting this evil in time. We risk cataclysmic
consequences if we don't, as this legislation permits, put increased
sanctions on companies that do business with Iran and their nuclear
program.
This is a very important piece of legislation, one that is so
important that we were able, as I mentioned before, to get this kind of
very quick consideration on the floor of the House of Representatives,
and it passed unanimously. People in the House understand the threat of
Iran. I hope the Senate does so also.
I will submit for the record the provisions of what this bill does.
Some have suggested that it is a watered-down version of the Iran
Freedom and Support Act. So to that degree I say, yes, it is, but it is
watered down for the purpose of arriving at a consensus so we can speak
into the moment.
It does make major changes particularly with respect to the
President's waiver. We have had ILSA now for 10 years. We have a
situation where a waiver has only been utilized, to my recollection,
one time because there is no requirement the President has to
[[Page S10504]]
use his waiver authority. The President can look at these issues and
decide yes or no sanctions, but there is no trigger, there is no force
for the President to actually do something.
This compromise bill would encourage him to actually do something, to
actually look at this information, make a decision, and if sanctions
are warranted as a result of the investigation, then the President
either has to impose those sanctions or waive them for six months.
Right now he doesn't have to waive them. He simply keeps investigating.
That is an important point to highlight.
That is an important pressure point that Iran needs to know that we
are ratcheting up--albeit slightly compared to the original Iran
Freedom and Support Act--we are ratcheting up the pressure on this
illicit regime in Iran to do something. It is very important for the
future security of our country.
I ask unanimous consent to print in the Record a fact sheet on the
bill.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
Fact Sheet on Santorum Iran Bill
Senator Santorum and Majority Leader Frist worked with
House counterparts, House leadership, and Administration
officials to craft a new bill that provides for key
enhancements to the soon to expire Iran-Libya Sanctions Act
(ILSA).
The bill also contains provisions that authorize assistance
to pro-democracy groups inside and outside Iran, and provides
additional authorities in the way of tools to curb money
laundering efforts that support WMD proliferation.
The bipartisan House bill, H.R. 6198, was just passed by
the House by voice vote.
This Santorum-Frist/Ros-Lehtinen-Lantos bipartisan Iran
Freedom and Support Act contains several crucial elements
that advance U.S. policy towards Iran:
First, it codifies sanctions, controls and Executive Orders
in place against Iran. This was an important part of S. 333,
the Iran Freedom and Support Act. This is a way Congress can
make these important Executive Branch actions and measures
part of our laws.
Second, the bill addresses the issue of investigating
foreign investments in Iran's energy sector and revises the
current waiver for the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act. The
bipartisan bill strongly urges the Administration to
investigate investment activity in Iran and report to
Congress within 180 days on an investment. Instead of
continuing with the open-ended waiver in current law, the
bipartisan bill authorizes the President to avoid sanctioning
foreign companies that invest in Iran's energy sector only if
use of the waiver is vital to the national security interests
of the United States. This is a six-month waiver, not an
open-ended waiver. The bill permits the President to renew
this waiver for six month periods. The bill also extends
ILSA, due to expire on Friday, September 29, 2006, until the
end of 2011.
Third, the bill directs the President to impose sanctions
on foreign entities that export, transfer or provide Iran
with WMD or WMD-related technologies or destabilizing
conventional weapons. The President must impose these
sanctions if a transfer occurs. This provision was also a key
component of S. 333, the Iran Freedom and Support Act.
Fourth, and perhaps most important, the bill authorizes
assistance for pro-democracy forces inside and outside Iran.
These funds are authorized for groups that are committed to
democratic ideals, respect for human rights, and equality of
opportunity, among other things. Activities such as radio and
television broadcasting into Iran are examples of activities
that could be funded under this bill.
Fifth, the bill states that Congress declares it should be
the policy of the U.S. to support the efforts of the people
of Iran to exercise self-determination over the form of their
government, and to support independent human rights and
peaceful pro-democracy forces inside Iran. This provision is
central to our efforts to successfully effect peaceful change
inside Iran.
Sixth, there are provisions that enhance current money
laundering sanctions available to the government. Current law
is enhanced to enable Treasury to target entities that are
involved in money laundering related to the proliferation of
WMD and missiles.
In all, the bill takes many of the provisions found in S.
333 and H.R. 282, the House companion, and blends them
together in a bill that has earned Administration support.
The bill is supported by outside stakeholders such as the
American Israel Political Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
Mr. SANTORUM. Mr. President, I am hopeful today that the leaders will
be able to get together and will be able to get consent to move forward
on this bill. I assure you, this is a bill we must pass. This is ``the
extension'' of ILSA with some very well thought out, negotiated
compromises between Republicans and Democrats in the Congress, as well
as the administration. I am hopeful that we can get a successful
conclusion to that bill. The security of our country demands it.
____________________