[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 508]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




    STATE SPONSORS OF TERROR REVIEW ENHANCEMENT ACT--115TH CONGRESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Florida (Mr. Yoho) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. YOHO. Mr. Speaker, today I will reintroduce my bill, the State 
Sponsors of Terrorism Review Enhancement Act. This legislation passed 
the full House last Congress unanimously. I hope this Chamber will once 
again take up this commonsense legislation and pass it as soon as 
possible.
  The designation of a foreign government as a ``State Sponsor of 
Terrorism'' is one of the United States' most powerful statements that 
we can give on another statement.
  Besides imposing sanctions, the stamp of ``State Sponsor of 
Terrorism'' labels a state untouchable to the international community.

                              {time}  1030

  This pariah status is much deserved as these are states that support 
the killing of innocent people as a matter of policy.
  Under current law, in order for a state to be delisted, the President 
of the United States only needs to certify that the country being 
considered for delisting has not engaged in supporting terrorism for a 
paltry 6 months. We are talking 6 months to be delisted. Considering 
the heinous acts of violence these countries have supported in the 
past, we should not be allowing them to be delisted after only 6 
months.
  To address this, my legislation will--and, again, it passed last 
Congress unanimously--quadruple the time a designated country must 
refrain from sponsoring terrorism, before the President can remove it 
from the sponsor list, from 6 to 24 months; increase congressional 
oversight by doubling the time Congress has to review the President's 
proposed removal from 45 to 90 days; establish a uniform process 
through which Congress can disapprove of the President's decision to 
remove a country from that list; and require the administration to 
notify and brief Congress upon initiating a review of a designated 
country's potential removal from the list.
  This legislation will assert congressional scrutiny and oversight and 
hopefully bring to an end politically motivated delistings. Successive 
administrations--both Republican and Democrat alike--delisted countries 
based on their presidency's legacy rather than the facts. This will 
stop absurd delistings like that of North Korea in 2008.
  North Korea was delisted in exchange for their promises of 
dismantling their nuclear program. However, 9 years and 5 nuclear tests 
later, they remain off the list. This rescission from the list has 
enabled North Korea to engage in supporting terrorism abroad. By 
increasing the amount of time for a state to not be engaged in 
terrorism and increasing congressional oversight and scrutiny, my 
legislation will not allow mistakes such as this delisting of North 
Korea's to take place.
  I want to remind people that this passed unanimously, and we hope 
that we will get the support again.

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