Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017
Floor Speech
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Mr. DeSANTIS. Mr. Chairman, to be clear, the JCPOA requires Iran to cap its stockpile of heavy water. It does not require the U.S. to subsidize or to purchase that heavy water.
This is a simple funding limitation amendment to an appropriations bill. It is similar to language used throughout the bill. It is a matter clearly related to the use of appropriated funds.
I listened to this debate in the Senate, and people said: Well, we have to spend U.S. tax dollars on getting heavy water; otherwise, Iran is going to sell it to North Korea. But understand, it is already against international law to ship heavy water to North Korea. So if Iran were to decide to do that and violate those sanctions, we have a way bigger policy issue than simply heavy water purchases, and it would call into question the entire Iran deal.
So instead of suppressing illicit nuclear proliferation among rogue nations, continuing purchases of Iranian heavy water would subsidize Iran's nuclear program and allow them to maintain the threshold capacity to make a dash for nuclear breakout.
If we want to take heavy water, then we can take it, but we should not subsidize Iran's nuclear program.
Mr. Chairman, I urge adoption of the amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. DeSANTIS. It is interesting, Mr. Chair, people talk about the Iran deal, and what the administration has really been doing is they have even gone beyond the concessions that are in the Iran deal.
If you look at getting access now to dollarized transactions, they said they weren't going to have access to the American financial system, but effectively, Iran is going to have indirect access to the American dollar. That was never called for by the Iran deal. That is a concession. Nor does the deal require us to spend American taxpayer funds to essentially inject into the Iranian regime and subsidize the nuclear program.
So, Mr. Chair, I think it is a good amendment. I think our Members should vote for it.
I yield back the balance of time.
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