[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 112 (Tuesday, July 12, 2016)]
[House]
[Pages H4663-H4664]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   IRAN NUCLEAR AGREEMENT ANNIVERSARY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, this month we mark the first anniversary 
of an historic agreement between Iran and six major world powers, 
including some of our key western allies, plus Russia and China.
  The agreement was designed to force Iran to back away from the 
nuclear threshold, acquiring nuclear weapons, which everyone agreed 
would be a disaster.
  Instead of sober reflection on the success of the agreement, where we 
are and where we are going, we will, instead, be discussing legislation 
that is

[[Page H4664]]

designed to have the United States break that agreement. In a very 
dangerous world, that agreement has made us a little bit safer. This 
would be a mistake of tragic proportions to undermine it.
  Last year, Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, on this 
House floor, as part of his campaign to scuttle a potential agreement, 
warned that Iran was on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons as 
thousands of centrifuges were whirling to enrich uranium.
  While today, 14,000 centrifuges have been removed from service and 
placed under international supervision. Iran has removed nuclear 
material from its once secret facility at Fordow. It has reduced its 
stockpile of enriched uranium from 12,000 kilograms, with a purity as 
high as 5 percent, to only 300 kilograms, with a purity of no more than 
3-2/3 percent. The core of the heavy water reactor at Arak has been 
filled with concrete. These are not abstract numbers and mere 
technicalities. Iran has adhered to the agreement, making a nuclear 
breakout harder, and take longer.
  Make no mistake, Iran has some unsavory hardline people in key 
positions of leadership, but not everyone. President Hassan Rouhani has 
been a voice of and a force for moderation. The Iran people voted for 
him as a repudiation of the hardliners.
  The Iranian people are still the most pro-American in the region, 
where even some of our allies have large anti-American populations. The 
majority of the Iranian people still like us, despite the fact that 
America cooperated with Britain to overthrow their popularly elected 
government in 1953 and install the Shah as dictator, despite the fact 
that the United States backed Saddam Hussein in the bloody Iraq-Iran 
war where we would later send American troops to overthrow him. At that 
time, he used poison gas--and we did nothing to stop him--against 
Iranians and against some of his own people.
  The relationship with Iran is important to not just controlling 
nuclear threats. Iran is going to play a key role in this troubled area 
as the major Shia power. Our war against Iraq created huge problems, 
not just in Iraq, but Syria and Afghanistan. Iran will always play an 
outsized role. The question is, can we work with them toward peace and 
reconciliation?
  I, for one, will vote against efforts to undercut the agreement when, 
after a year, all the evidence that I have seen is that the agreement 
is working and that Iran is complying.
  I am encouraged that there is a memorandum of understanding with 
American company Boeing and Iran to purchase 80 jet airplanes and lease 
another 29, supporting over 100,000 jobs in the United States over the 
next decade. Rather than unwinding this agreement, people should 
support and strengthen it.
  Notably, our other partners in the agreement have already started to 
take commercial advantage. I would rather have American jobs at Boeing 
than have Airbus sell even more planes to Iran or the French Bombardier 
manufacturer. The rest of the world has moved on and America should not 
move backward.
  In a troubled world, an opportunity to strengthen ties with a former 
enemy through trade, job creation, and bringing us a bit closer 
together should not be a major cause for concern. It should be a cause 
for celebration.

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