Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. President, I appreciate my colleague very much for speaking in a way so we can all have time on the issue.

No. 1, about the chilling messages, this is a chilling message from the Supreme Leader of Iran about 3 days ago: Nine questions about the elimination of Israel. In this tweet--and I will read some of it later--the Ayatollah, the Supreme Leader in Iran, talks about how to annihilate the State of Israel during the negotiations.

Also, recently an IAEA inspector was talking about elements of the Iranian nuclear program that have been hidden that would make it larger than we all suspect.

What are we trying to do? I would like to bring the Iranian nuclear program to an end through peaceful means, and by an end, I mean the following: I would welcome a deal that would allow the Iranians to produce peaceful nuclear power but without the capability of turning that program into a weapons program.

I fear that we are on the road to a North Korean outcome, where the international community gave a rogue regime a small nuclear program to be monitored by the United Nations--and the rest is history regarding North Korea.

I have asked several times to the administration: Tell me the safeguards that exist in these negotiations with Iran that did not exist in North Korea, and I have yet to get an answer.

It is pretty openly known that the administration and the P5+1 have conceded a right to enrich uranium as part of any deal with Iran. To that I say: Of all the nations on Earth, given their behavior, name one country that you would put in the category ahead of Iran when it comes to denying them the ability to have a centrifuge that one day could be used to make a weapon. The idea of giving an enrichment capability to the Iranians, given 30 years of lying, deceit, American blood on their hands, and recent tweets about annihilating Israel to me is insane.

So all we are asking is that any deal negotiated between the P5+1 come to this body for a discussion and a vote. Senator Corker is the primary author of this legislation.

Here is what I can tell the world: Nobody wants any more war. But we do not want to allow the Iranians, given their behavior, the capability one day to develop a nuclear weapon, and that is exactly what they have been trying to do. They have lied about their program. They have been deceptive about their program. They have blood on their hands when it comes to killing Americans in Iraq. They are one of the largest state sponsors of terrorism in the world.

The idea that we would give them an enrichment capability just astounds me. We are telling our allies--South Korea, and the UAE: If you want a nuclear program, fine--don't enrich the uranium.

There are 15 nations in the world that have nuclear programs without an enrichment capability. To concede one to the Iranians is the ultimate act of throwing the Mideast into further chaos, because the Sunni Arabs, the mortal enemy of the Shia Persians, will want a capability of their own of like kind or greater. The worst possible outcome is to give a regime this dangerous the capability or the potential to one day make a bomb. One centrifuge in the hands of people with this mentality is one too many.

To the Iranian people, my beef is not with you. My beef is with your leaders who have taken the world down a dark path.

This legislation is pretty simple. Bring the deal to the Senate. We will have a right to file a motion of disapproval. We will have a vote, we will have a debate, and if it is a good deal, it will be approved. If it is a bad deal, we will stop it.

I cannot imagine the Senate and the House sitting on the sidelines and ignoring something this important.

To Senator Corker, who will soon be the Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, this was his original idea. We have tried to perfect it, but what I really believe is what he tried to do months ago to make sure the Congress would have a check and balance over any deal with the Iranians was smart. It would enhance the administration's hand when it comes to negotiating because they would have to tell the Iranians, it is not just us you have to please, you have to go before the representatives of the American people. That would lead to a better outcome. If it truly is a North Korea in the making, we will have a chance to stop it.

President Obama wants a deal too badly, in my view; but at the end of the day, let's wait and see what happens. I just want to let the Iranians and the administration know beforehand, we will not sit on the sidelines and watch you go it alone. This is one decision the President will make that the Congress has to be read in on and have a say about. This is not the time to let President Obama go it alone. The stakes are too high for Israel, for the United States, for the world at large.

What do I fear the most? I fear that over time we will give the Iranian ayatollahs the capability to develop a nuclear weapon. Name one technology they developed that they haven't shared with terrorists. And it will surely come our way.

To our friends in Israel: No Israeli mother can ever go to sleep at night thinking her children are safe and the future of that country is secure if the Iranians have a nuclear capability. When the ayatollahs say openly they wish to destroy the State of Israel, to annihilate the State of Israel, I believe they mean it. When the Jewish people say never again, they speak based on past experience.

Of all the scenarios in the world that could throw this world into a chaotic situation beyond what you see today, it would be to allow the ayatollahs a nuclear weapon. The Sunni Arabs will have one of their own. Israel will never know a minute's peace, and I fear that it would come our way.

I would like to now yield to Senator Corker who can explain the details of the legislation, why we are asking this to be taken up before the end of negotiations.

A week from Monday the deadline comes to an end. I want everybody at the negotiating table to know this deal is so important to the United States and the world that the Congress needs to have a say. Barack Obama should not be able to make any deal with the Iranians that is binding unless the Congress approves, and the Iranians should never be allowed to have a nuclear capability, period, that could be turned into a weapon.

With that, I yield to Senator Corker.

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