[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 180 (Monday, November 28, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7905-S7907]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     REPORT RELATIVE TO THE ISSUANCE OF AN EXECUTIVE ORDER TO TAKE 
  ADDITIONAL STEPS WITH RESPECT TO THE NATIONAL EMERGENCY ORIGINALLY 
  DECLARED ON MARCH 15, 1995 IN EXECUTIVE ORDER 12957 WITH RESPECT TO 
 IRAN, RECEIVED DURING ADJOURNMENT OF THE SENATE ON NOVEMBER 21, 2011--
                                 PM 35

  The PRESIDING OFFICER laid before the Senate the following message 
from the President of the United States, together with an accompanying 
report; which was referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and 
Urban Affairs:

To the Congress of the United States:
  Pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 
U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), I hereby report that I have issued an 
Executive Order (the ``order'') that takes additional steps with 
respect to the national

[[Page S7906]]

emergency declared in Executive Order 12957 of March 15, 1995.
  In Executive Order 12957, the President found that the actions and 
policies of the Government of Iran threaten the national security, 
foreign policy, and economy of the United States. To deal with that 
threat, the President in Executive Order 12957 declared a national 
emergency and imposed prohibitions on certain transactions with respect 
to the development of Iranian petroleum resources. To further respond 
to that threat, Executive Order 12959 of May 6, 1995, imposed 
comprehensive trade and financial sanctions on Iran. Executive Order 
13059 of August 19, 1997, consolidated and clarified the previous 
orders.
  In the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment 
Act of 2010 (Public Law 111-195) (22 U.S.C. 8501 et seq.) (CISADA), 
which I signed into law on July 1, 2010, the Congress found that the 
illicit nuclear activities of the Government of Iran, along with its 
development of unconventional weapons and ballistic missiles and its 
support for international terrorism, threaten the security of the 
United States. The Congress also found in CISADA that economic 
sanctions imposed pursuant to the provisions of CISADA, the Iran 
Sanctions Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-172) (50 U.S.C. 1701 note) (ISA), 
and IEEPA, and other authorities available to the United States to 
prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, are necessary to protect 
the essential security interests of the United States. To take 
additional steps with respect to the national emergency declared in 
Executive Order 12957 and to implement section 105(a) of CISADA (22 
U.S.C. 8514(a)), I issued Executive Order 13553 on September 28, 2010, 
to impose sanctions on officials of the Government of Iran and other 
persons acting on behalf of the Government of Iran determined to be 
responsible for or complicit in certain serious human rights abuses. To 
take additional steps with respect to the threat posed by Iran and to 
provide implementing authority for a number of the sanctions set forth 
in ISA, as amended by, inter alia, CISADA, I issued Executive Order 
13574 on May 23, 2011, to authorize the Secretary of the Treasury to 
implement certain sanctions imposed pursuant to ISA by the Secretary of 
State.
  This order expands upon actions taken pursuant to ISA, as amended by, 
inter alia, CISADA. The ISA requires that, absent a waiver, the 
President impose at least three of nine possible forms of sanctions on 
persons determined to have made certain investments in Iran's energy 
sector. The CISADA expanded ISA to, inter alia, require the same 
treatment of persons determined to have provided refined petroleum to 
Iran above specified monetary thresholds or have provided certain 
goods, services, technology, information, or support to Iran related to 
the importation or development of refined petroleum. This order 
authorizes the Secretary of State to impose similar sanctions on 
persons determined to have provided certain goods, services, 
technology, or support that contributes to either Iran's development of 
petroleum resources or to Iran's production of petrochemicals, two 
sectors that continue to fund Iran's illicit nuclear activities and 
that could serve as conduits for Iran to obtain proliferation sensitive 
technology. Because CISADA has impeded Iran's ability to develop its 
domestic refining capacity, Iran has tried to compensate by using its 
petrochemical facilities to refine petroleum. These new authorities 
will allow the United States to target directly Iran's attempts to 
subvert U.S. sanctions.

  This order authorizes the Secretary of State, in consultation with 
the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Commerce, and the 
United States Trade Representative, and with the President of the 
Export-Import Bank, the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the 
Federal Reserve System, and other agencies and officials as 
appropriate, to impose sanctions on a person upon determining that the 
person:
  --knowingly, on or after the effective date of the order, sells, 
leases, or provides to Iran goods, services, technology, or support 
that has a fair market value of $1,000,000 or more or that, during a 
12-month period, has an aggregate fair market value of $5,000,000 or 
more, and that could directly and significantly contribute to the 
maintenance or enhancement of Iran's ability to develop petroleum 
resources located in Iran;
  --knowingly, on or after the effective date of this order, sells, 
leases, or provides to Iran goods, services, technology, or support 
that has a fair market value of $250,000 or more or that, during a 12-
month period, has an aggregate fair market value of $1,000,000 or more, 
and that could directly and significantly contribute to the maintenance 
or expansion of Iran's domestic production of petrochemical products;
  --is a successor entity to a person that engaged in a provision of 
goods, services, technology, or support for which sanctions may be 
imposed pursuant to this new order;
  --owns or controls a person that engaged in provision of goods, 
services, technology, or support for which sanctions may be imposed 
pursuant to this new order and had actual knowledge or should have 
known that the person engaged in the activities; or
  --is owned or controlled by, or under common ownership or control 
with, a person that engaged in the provision of goods, services, 
technology, or support for which sanctions may be imposed pursuant to 
this new order, and knowingly participated in the provision of such 
goods, services, technology, or support.
The following sanctions may be selected for imposition on a person that 
the Secretary of State determines to meet any of the above criteria:
  --the Board of Directors of the Export-Import Bank shall deny 
approval of the issuance of any guarantee, insurance, extension of 
credit, or participation in an extension of credit in connection with 
the export of any goods or services to the sanctioned person;
  --agencies shall not issue any specific license or grant any other 
specific permission or authority under any statute that requires the 
prior review and approval of the United States Government as a 
condition for the export or reexport of goods or technology to the 
sanctioned person;
  --with respect to a sanctioned person that is a financial 
institution, the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal 
Reserve System and the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New 
York shall take such actions as they deem appropriate, including 
denying designation, or terminating the continuation of any prior 
designation of, the sanctioned person as a primary dealer in United 
States Government debt instruments; or agencies shall prevent the 
sanctioned person from serving as an agent of the United States 
Government or serving as a repository for United States Government 
funds;
  --agencies shall not procure, or enter into a contract for the 
procurement of, any goods or services from the sanctioned person;
  --the Secretary of the Treasury shall prohibit any United States 
financial institution from making loans or providing credits to the 
sanctioned person totaling more than $10,000,000 in any 12-month period 
unless such person is engaged in activities to relieve human suffering 
and the loans or credits are provided for such activities;
  --the Secretary of the Treasury shall prohibit any transactions in 
foreign exchange that are subject to the jurisdiction of the United 
States and in which the sanctioned person has any interest;
  --the Secretary of the Treasury shall prohibit any transfers of 
credit or payments between financial institutions or by, through, or to 
any financial institution, to the extent that such transfers or 
payments are subject to the jurisdiction of the United States and 
involve any interest of the sanctioned person;
  --the Secretary of the Treasury shall block all property and 
interests in property that are in the United States, that come within 
the United States, or that are or come within the possession or control 
of any United States person, including any foreign branch, of the 
sanctioned person, and provide that such property and interests in 
property may not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or 
otherwise dealt in; or
  --the Secretary of the Treasury shall restrict or prohibit imports of 
goods, technology, or services, directly or indirectly, into the United 
States from the sanctioned person.
  I have delegated to the Secretary of the Treasury the authority, in 
consultation with the Secretary of State, to take such actions, 
including the promulgation of rules and regulations, and

[[Page S7907]]

to employ all powers granted to the President by IEEPA as may be 
necessary to carry out the purposes of section 3 of the order. All 
agencies of the United States Government are directed to take all 
appropriate measures within their authority to carry out the provisions 
of the order.
  I am enclosing a copy of the Executive Order I have issued.
                                                        Barack Obama.  
The White House, November 20, 2011.

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