[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 74 (Thursday, May 14, 2015)]
[House]
[Pages H2962-H2963]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   IRAN NUCLEAR AGREEMENT REVIEW ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Kansas (Mr. Pompeo) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POMPEO. Mr. Speaker, today, this body will take up the Iran 
Nuclear Agreement Review Act. It has the noble intention of reducing 
the risk that the Iranians will develop a nuclear arsenal. 
Unfortunately, I think passage of this bill will do just the opposite.
  Mr. Speaker, Ben Rhodes, the President's Deputy National Security 
Adviser, has said that the Iranian nuclear deal is President Obama's 
second-term ObamaCare. He meant that as a good thing, but we all know 
what a disaster that law has been for this country. And in reality, the 
Iranian nuclear deal, as it is being negotiated by this President, is 
far worse for the American people and for future generations than that 
healthcare law could ever be.
  This much-heralded framework agreement between the P5+1 and Iran that 
the President has talked about has never been written down. Everyone in 
this Chamber today knows exactly what the ultimate deal will entail, 
though. The United States and the international community will release 
Iran from its crushing sanctions in exchange for nearly nothing.

                              {time}  1015

  Let's be blunt. Iran will continue on the path of getting a nuclear 
weapon if this agreement is ultimately signed; but, instead of 
asserting congressional authority and constraining the President, the 
House today is considering a bill that will do just the opposite.

[[Page H2963]]

  It will give President Obama a blank check to sign a really bad deal 
with the largest state sponsor of terror in the world. The mullahs will 
be allowed to enrich uranium and to continue to build their missile 
program.
  It is unconscionable for Congress to grant such sweeping power to 
President Obama, allowing him to lift sanctions on Iran, no matter the 
cost to our national security, the security of Israel, and the entire 
world.
  Even worse, the House is willing to do this today without having even 
one hearing, one amendment, a grand total of 40 minutes of debate about 
how we might actually reduce the risk to the world by constraining the 
President and the agreement he intends to sign. The House is giving 
this to the President without even trying. I can't be part of that.
  We can't even use the excuse of timing. The President says we have 
until at least June 30 before any deal can be struck. On this immensely 
important issue, an issue that my colleagues tell me is one of the most 
important facing our Nation--and I certainly agree with that--we will 
give too short a shrift and move too quickly without doing all that we 
can.
  For 35 years, since our Embassy in Tehran was taken over for 444 days 
by the Iranians, they have been killing Americans. They have killed my 
friends with IEDs in Iraq by the hundreds. Today, Shia militias run 
rampant through that country. They talk of Baghdad as an extension of 
the caliphate.
  Even today, as I walked here, I watched on the news as the Iranians 
were firing on cargo ships off the coast of Yemen. They have tried to 
kill an Ambassador to the United States in this very town; yet we are 
about to strike an agreement that will grant them the capacity to build 
a nuclear weapon. This body is not doing all that it can.
  I urge my fellow Members to oppose this bill and work toward a real 
solution that has the opportunity to keep Iran from getting that 
nuclear arsenal.

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