[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 14620-14621]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     IRAN SANCTIONS EXTENSION BILL

  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I noticed the majority leader has given us 
all notice that, after consultation with the Democratic leader, he 
intends to bring up the Iran Sanctions Act, H.R. 6297. I point out that 
this legislation passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 419 
to 1.
  It is legislation that would extend the Iran Sanctions Act that was 
passed by this Congress that is set to expire at the end of this year. 
Let me repeat that. The Iran Sanctions Act, which was enacted 
originally in 1996--if no action is taken before the end of December, 
that sanction authorization legislation would expire.
  This is our last opportunity to extend the Iran Sanctions Act before 
it is scheduled to expire at the end of December. It was passed in 1996 
by a unanimous vote of this body. Its goal was to deny Iran the ability 
to be able to have financial support for its nuclear proliferation. 
Congress had passed several bills that provided sanction opportunities 
by the administration to impose sanctions in order to get Iran to 
change its behavior, its illegal activities in pursuing a nuclear 
weapon, which was against U.S. security interests, destabilizing for 
the entire region, threatened Israel, threatened the neighboring 
states. It was, I think, the unanimous view of our body that we had to 
take whatever steps were possible to prevent Iran from becoming a 
nuclear weapon power.
  The legislation we passed, including the Iran Sanctions Act, allowed 
the Obama administration to move forward with sanctions against Iran, 
and they rigorously enforced the sanctions they imposed. I want to 
acknowledge the work done by the Obama administration in enforcing 
those sanctions that we gave our authorization to impose.
  But the Obama administration went further than that. They then 
garnered international support to also impose and support the sanctions 
that we had imposed in the United States, which was strong enough to 
get Iran to recognize that they had to come to the negotiating table. 
Clearly, the sanctions were the motivating factor that allowed for the 
negotiations of the nuclear agreement that was agreed to 2 years ago.
  This legislation is pretty simple. It extends for 10 years the Iran 
Sanctions Act that was used by the administration and in which we have 
a temporary--we have relief granted under that law as long as Iran is 
in compliance with the nuclear agreement. The nuclear agreement, JCPOA, 
specifically provides for the snapback of sanctions in the event that 
Iran violates the provisions of the agreement.
  In order to have snapbacks, you have to have the sanction regime in 
place. Therefore, it is incumbent upon us to extend the sanction 
authorization. This does not impose any new sanctions on Iran. That it 
does not. It is not in violation of the JCPOA. It just allows us to 
have effective enforcement to make sure Iran complies with their 
commitments. I want to underscore that point. During the Senate Foreign 
Relations Committee hearing, I had a chance to ask the administration's 
witness, Secretary Lew, that specific question. I asked Secretary Lew--
this question was asked July 23, 2015. I said to the witness:

       The Iran Sanctions Act expires at the end of 2016. We will 
     still be in the JCPOA a period of time where snapback of 
     sanctions is a viable hedge against Iran's cheating. Congress 
     may well want to extend that law so that power is available 
     immediately if Iran were to violate the agreement. Is that 
     permitted under the JCPOA?

  The answer from Secretary Lew:

       I think that if it is on expiration, it is one thing. If it 
     is well in advance, it is another. I think the idea of coming 
     out of the box right now is very different from what you 
     would do when it expires.

  Well, we are doing exactly what the administration asked us to do. We 
have held off for over--now it has been over 15 months, 16 months that 
we have held off before we have taken action to extend the Iran 
Sanctions Act. If we don't take action now, the authority given by 
Congress in the 1996 act, which would empower the snapbacks if needed, 
would not be available. So it is timely for us to act. It is totally 
consistent with the JCPOA and is not at all inconsistent with our 
responsibilities under that legislation.
  I think, though, that we should have a little bit of a discussion as 
to what we do moving forward. I should point out that the Iran 
Sanctions Act, H.R. 6297, is identical to S. 3281, legislation I filed 
with 19 of my colleagues earlier this year. So I think this enjoys 
strong bipartisan support, and I urge my colleagues to support it.
  Now, looking forward--I did not support the JCPOA. I did not support 
that agreement for various reasons, but it went into effect. I must 
tell my colleagues, I think it would be tragic if the United States 
unilaterally walked away from the Iran nuclear agreement.

[[Page 14621]]

What that would do is give the ability to Iran to pursue a nuclear 
weapons program without inspectors on the ground to let us know what 
they were doing. They would be able to pursue that, knowing full well 
that the international community would not be unified in regard to 
sanctions against Iran. Yes, we would impose sanctions, but our allies 
around the world would no longer be obligated to follow that, since it 
was the United States pulling out of the agreement.
  Many of those countries already have arrangements, and it would be 
very difficult to see that they would follow U.S. leadership. In fact, 
one of the adverse impacts of the United States walking away from the 
Iran agreement would be that we would lose our standing as an 
international leader, bringing the international community together to 
isolate Iran. Instead, we would be isolating the United States. That is 
not in our national security interest.
  So what should we do? Well, as I said earlier, the first step is to 
pass H.R. 6297 so that we have all of the tools in place. Secondly, let 
us all join together to rigorously enforce the Iran agreement, the 
JCPOA. We need to do that. We need to make sure that every part of that 
agreement is adhered to, including making sure Iran never becomes a 
nuclear weapons state. We need to continue the use of sanctions on 
Iran's nonnuclear nefarious activities.
  They are still a sponsor of terrorism. We all know that. I was 
recently in the Middle East. I had a chance to talk to a lot of our 
strategic partners. They tell me about Iran's activities in their 
region, how they are supporting efforts to destabilize other sovereign 
states in the Middle East. They are supporting terrorism.
  We also know that they have expanded their ballistic program. That is 
in contravention to their international obligations. We can impose 
sanctions and continue to strengthen sanctions against Iran in regard 
to those activities. They are violating the human rights of the 
citizens of their own country. We can take actions there.
  There are areas where we can continue to work with the international 
community to deal with Iran's nefarious activities. We should do that. 
I would just call to my colleagues' attention that several--actually in 
October of 2015, I introduced S. 2119, along with several of my 
colleagues, so that the Congress would be in a better position to carry 
out rigorous enforcement of the JCPOA and to take on Iran, working with 
our partners, in regard to their other activities.
  It provides more information to the Congress on how the sanction 
relief resources are being used by Iran so that we can track the money. 
If they use it to support terrorism against the United States or they 
use it against our interests, we would be able to know about that and 
take action.
  It provides for expedited considerations if Iran commits these types 
of violations. It makes it very clear that we will continue to work on 
a regional security strategy so that our partners in the region know 
that the United States will continue to be on their side against the 
aggression that we have seen from the Iran regime. To me, that is the 
responsible action for us to take in order to carry out what should be 
U.S. leadership in isolating Iran, getting it to change its behavior, 
recognizing that it has been a major problem for the security of the 
United States in the region, and we must continue to be actively 
engaged.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Lankford). The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for 
such time as I may require.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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