[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 131 (Friday, September 11, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1264]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             APPROVE THE JOINT COMPREHENSIVE PLAN OF ACTION

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. ANNA G. ESHOO

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, September 11, 2015

  Ms. ESHOO. Mr. Speaker, today I voted for the Joint Comprehensive 
Plan of Action. I did so because the world is approximately 90 days 
away from Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon, and this agreement is the 
most effective way of stopping that effort dead in its tracks.
   After years of sanctions and then direct negotiations, the United 
States and its partners, the P5+1, have produced a plan with 
unprecedented concessions from Iran, together with the most rigorous 
inspections, restrictions and verifications regimen ever negotiated.
   The agreement will reduce the number of Iran's centrifuges by two-
thirds; prevent Iran from producing weapons-grade plutonium; and 
eliminate 98 percent of Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium. It grants 
the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) access to Iran's nuclear 
program so that compliance is ensured, including notification to the 
agency of plans to construct new nuclear facilities. No facility--
declared or undeclared--will be off limits. Decades of essential 
monitoring measures are included in the agreement that allow the IAEA 
to enforce these terms.
   The United States can unilaterally resume the U.N. Security Council 
sanctions if there is any violation by Iran of its commitments in the 
next ten years, and there can be no veto from Russia or China.
   This agreement is without precedent, and so is the current 
instability in the Middle East, undoubtedly fueled by the actions of 
Iran. It has the support of the entire United Nations, including the 
European Union, Russia, and China.
   Experts from all aspects of our defense, diplomatic, and scientific 
communities support the agreement, including 36 top officials in the 
U.S. military, 29 of our nation's leading scientists and engineers, 100 
former ambassadors and diplomats, and more than 4,000 Catholic 
religious women.
   The agreement has the support of more than 400 American Rabbis, as 
well as former top officials of the Israeli security forces, Mossad 
Chief Efraim Halevy and former Shin Bet Director Ami Ayalon.
   Our nation's most prominent nuclear scientists and engineers 
described their support for the agreement in a recent letter to 
President Obama, saying it is ``technically sound,'' ``stringent'' and 
``innovative.''
   And in their open letter to Congress, Catholic Sisters from across 
our country called on us to ``risk on the side of peace'' by supporting 
the JCPOA.
   No definitive alternative has been put forth by those who oppose the 
agreement. Furthermore, should the United States abandon the agreement, 
our country would be viewed as feckless, a nation whose word cannot be 
trusted and our international partners would no longer commit to 
sanctions.
   For Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, this, in my view, 
is an existential moment. By eliminating the possibility of Iran 
developing a nuclear weapon, Israel's security is enhanced and so is 
the stabilization of the region by removing the threat of a nuclear 
Iran.
   For all these reasons and more, I support this agreement and risk on 
the side of peace by voting for the JCPOA.

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