[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Page 9110]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         SANCTIONS LEGISLATION

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, yesterday, the Republican Senate took 
another step to advance key sanctions legislation to hold Iran 
accountable. The Iranians are pursuing a regional strategy intent on 
empowering Shia militias, Hezbollah, their Houthi proxies, and other 
groups. After years of the Obama administration's willingness to ignore 
Iran's malign activities and failure to address Iran's provocations, we 
finally have an administration that shares our desire to take a 
stronger approach to keep the American people safe.
  This legislation will enhance our ability to hold Iran accountable, 
which is of great importance given Iran's continued testing of 
ballistic missiles, its harassment of U.S. vessels at sea, and its 
support of terrorism across the region.
  At a time when we face many challenges both at home and abroad, we 
must do everything we can to enable our country to counter threats 
where they exist and protect the American people. That is why we will 
keep working to pass this Iran sanctions legislation and, with it, 
additional sanctions on Russia.
  I again want to commend Senator Corker and the ranking member on the 
Foreign Relations Committee and Senator Crapo and the ranking member on 
the Banking Committee, who worked to craft this bipartisan agreement.
  This is a signal. Russia's attempt to influence our elections last 
year was the result of 8 years of a failed foreign policy. The Obama 
administration's efforts to draw down our conventional capabilities and 
commitments made it clear to aggressive states such as China, Russia, 
and Iran that America would watch passively as they increased their 
respective spheres of influence. This bipartisan amendment should 
represent the first step in crafting a policy response to cyber attacks 
against our country.
  Now, two things must follow from this small step. First, our 
Department of Defense and intelligence community must develop a 
warfighting doctrine and strategy that recognizes cyber attacks, active 
measures, and support of proxies as asymmetric, unconventional attacks 
on the United States. Our response needs to be tied to the escalatory 
ladder and an overwhelming response. No nation-state should be able to 
attack our sovereignty without suffering an unacceptable response. 
Sanctions represent only one facet of our foreign policy tools.
  Second, Senators coming together to impose additional sanctions 
against Iran and Russia should work toward providing the Defense 
Department with the force structure and combat readiness necessary to 
restore deterrents against these aggressor states. Again, sanctions are 
only one foreign policy tool.
  We must also restore both our foreign presence and our full-spectrum 
warfighting capability as well. Doing so will send a message to those 
nations that wish us harm, and it will reassure our allies.

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