[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 74 (Tuesday, May 8, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2541-S2542]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      Nuclear Agreement with Iran

  Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, the President just announced that the 
United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal. The President 
says he wants a better deal. So do a lot of us. The fact is, we need to 
keep pressure on Iran with additional economic sanctions that will stop 
it from developing ICBM missiles. That was not part of the Iran nuclear 
agreement. We need to ratchet up the pressure on Iran in order to stop 
its ICBM missile program.
  Pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal is a tragic mistake. It will 
divide us from our European allies, and it will allow Iran to build a 
nuclear weapon--a nuclear bomb--within a year, as compared to 7 to 12 
years in the future if we stay in the agreement. I think keeping an 
atomic weapon out of a radical religious outfit like Iran, headed by an 
Ayatolla, is clearly in the free world's interest. Certainly, it is for 
the free world. Clearly, it is for the United States, as it is for all 
of our allies. That is why the United States had such broad support in 
an agreement that Iran not build a nuclear weapon. Pulling out of this 
agreement risks all of the unprecedented restrictions on Iran's nuclear 
program that are in place right now--the hundreds of visits by the 
IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and its ability to get in 
behind locked doors. Before this agreement, we never had that kind of 
insight into Iran. Now is the time to continue ramping up the pressure 
on Iran, not to back off, as pulling out of the agreement will cause us 
to do.
  First things first, let's keep restrictions on Iran's nuclear 
program--the lessened enriched uranium, the complete cementing over of 
the plutonium plant, the ability to inspect and verify. Then what we 
ought to be doing is doubling down on Iran's ballistic missile program, 
on its regional aggression, on its support for terror, and on its human

[[Page S2542]]

rights violations. It was the tough U.S. and international sanctions 
that brought Iran to the table in the first place, and it was we in 
this Congress who enacted many of those economic sanctions.
  To sum up, we need to put more pressure on Iran with additional 
economic sanctions to stop it from developing its ICBM missiles, and 
pulling out of the Iran nuclear agreement now is a tragic mistake. It 
will divide us from our European allies, and it will cause Iran to 
build a nuclear bomb within a year instead of preventing it from 
building one for at least 7 to 12 years. That seems, to me, to be a 
choice that we made at the time we entered this agreement. It seems to 
be all the more clear today that we ought to continue the agreement.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Daines). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for 
up to 15 minutes as in morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.