Motion To Instruct Conferees On H.R. 2194, Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act Of 2009

Floor Speech

ROSKAM. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, not long ago, I was briefed by an official on Iran's provocative action, and he gave a challenge in that briefing.

He said, Print out on your computer a red line. Print a big, thick, red bar on a white sheet of paper, and look at it from a distance. You'll think it's a solid red line, but if you'll look at it up close, what you will see is that it is actually a series of tiny, little pink lines all pushed together, but they're individual little lines. He said, What Iran has figured out is a way to break through one tiny, little line at a time, just one at a time, one at a time, one at a time.

That is why we are here today, because we in the West, we in the United States, are on to what the Iranian leadership is doing. They are being incredibly provocative. There is no legitimate nuclear ambition for Iran. This is a regime that has said that Israel, our greatest ally in the Middle East, has no right to exist. They've said one provocative thing after another.

History is filled, Mr. Speaker, with examples of weakness and ambiguity in foreign affairs. What is the result? Largely, the result is calamity.

Now we have a chance to be united, to all come together to say we are not going to stand for this. We have come up with a remedy, and it is time for the conferees to move forward and to create this very tough and solid sanction against the petroleum products going into Iran. I urge the conferees to move quickly.

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