[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 17]
[House]
[Pages 23023-23024]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 URGING SUPPORT FOR H. RES. 782, A RESOLUTION DEMANDING IRAN DISCLOSE 
      FULLY AND ALLOW UNFETTERED INSPECTION OF ITS NUCLEAR PROGRAM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Johnson) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H. 
Resolution 782. This is a resolution that I have introduced and which 
demands that Iran fully disclose its nuclear facilities, its nuclear 
development facilities, and also allow unfettered international 
inspection of its nuclear program.
  The elimination of nuclear weapons is an issue that is certainly very 
close to my heart, and I would like to see that nuclear weapons 
actually are removed from the face of the planet. So it certainly goes 
in the wrong direction were we as a Nation to tolerate another nation, 
especially Iran, acquiring the technology to develop nuclear weapons.
  What's troubling is last week the whole world learned that Iran has 
concealed construction of an enrichment facility near the city of Qom. 
And they did that without knowing that our intelligence community 
already knew that the facility was over there. It just had not been 
publicly disclosed, as it was last week. I guess one of the motivations 
for not disclosing it prior to last week was to just see how deep in 
the bad faith bucket would Iran pull its water from. They had no 
intention of revealing it. It was secret. They exercised deception to 
conceal it. So our country's announcement last week I'm sure was not a 
happy time for the Iranian leadership.
  Having set the model for how they will deal with the international 
community insofar as nuclear enrichment and from that acquiring or 
building a nuclear weapon, we have to make sure that we reverse that 
bad faith into good faith if at all possible. One of the ways of doing 
that is through continued tightening of sanctions and to isolate the 
country of Iran for continuing to be deceptive about its nuclear 
intentions and its nuclear program.
  So while my resolution, H. Res. 782, does not impose sanctions, it 
just merely puts the House of Representatives on record, as we approach 
the Geneva talks coming up on Thursday,

[[Page 23024]]

that we want to have disclosure immediately, immediate international 
inspections, and immediate access by inspectors to its nuclear 
facilities. That's what this resolution does.
  My friend Chairman Howard Berman of the Foreign Affairs Committee has 
a number of options that he is considering with respect to sanctions. 
So in no way would I want this bill to interfere with other measures 
that will be coming forward out of his committee. But this is 
necessitated by haste because of the approaching deadline for the 
Geneva talks to begin.
  We have got wide bipartisan support, and I hope my colleagues will 
join the 39 Members from both sides of the aisle who have already 
cosponsored it.

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