Approval of Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action

Floor Speech

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Mr. DeSANTIS. Mr. Speaker, in 2012, when the President was running for reelection, he said: Look, with Iran, it is very simple. We will remove the sanctions when they dismantle and give up their nuclear program.

That was a promise he made to the American people, but this deal doesn't even come close to that. Iran is allowed to maintain a vast, vast nuclear infrastructure.

Two years ago in this House, we passed more robust sanctions, which would have further tightened the screws on the Iranian regime. I think, at that time, Iran desperately wanted to get out of the sanctions. If you had asked Iran what they wanted, they would have, obviously, wanted the sanctions relief because they needed the money--the regime needed it to solidify themselves in power--but they also would have wanted to keep their nuclear program. Then, of course, they would have wanted to continue to fund terrorism.

This agreement basically gives Iran everything it wants, so I join my colleagues who have urged that we resoundingly reject this agreement.

I want to point out something that, I think, is very personal to a lot of veterans.

If you look right here, this is an up-armored Humvee in Iraq in, probably, the 2007-2008 time period. It has been ripped to shreds by an EFP device--an explosively formed penetrator. This is something wherein the explosion will cause these pieces of metal to go 3,000 meters per second. It will ravage the individuals who are in the Humvee, and it will even go through the armor. These devices caused the deaths of hundreds of our service members, and they wounded many, many more.

Why do I bring that up?

Because this was perpetrated by this man, Qasem Soleimani, who is the head of the Quds Force--Iran's Revolutionary Guard terrorist outfit. He was orchestrating those attacks on American service members. That is enough, right? We are doing a deal with a country that has a lot of American blood on its hands.

It is even worse than that. This deal relieves the international sanctions on Qasem Soleimani and the Quds Force. It empowers the very people who harmed our service members in Iraq. I think that that is an insult to the memories of the people who lost their lives on our behalf and an insult to their families.

For that reason, in addition to all of the other great ones that have been mentioned, we need to resoundingly reject this deal.

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