House Passes Bills to Address Iran Deal Fallout

Press Release

On the one-year anniversary of the Obama Administration's disastrous nuclear deal with Iran, the House of Representatives passed a package of three reinforcing legislative initiatives to prevent the nuclear agreement from further damaging U.S. national security and that of U.S. allies.

Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04), senior member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and a strong supporter of American-Israeli relations, who voted for the package said of the first bill, the "No 2H20 from Iran Act," (H.R. 5119) "will block the administration from conducting future purchases of material from Iran's nuclear program."

Earlier this week the administration confirmed that it had paid the Iranian government approximately $8.6 million dollars for 32 metric tons of heavy water, used in the production of plutonium, in what it said would be a "one-time" transaction to help the Iranians bring their stock of the material below the threshold set by the nuclear deal.

"This bill would prevent our government from spending U.S. taxpayer money to purchase material from Iran's nuclear program. It seems absurd that such a measure is necessary, but sadly it is so," said Smith. "By voting to support this Act, we make clear that Iran bears sole responsibility for its compliance with the deal and that it is outrageous that the administration would have U.S. taxpayers pad the coffers of such a wicked regime, the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism and avowed enemy of our ally Israel."

Smith also supported the "Iran Accountability Act of 2016," (H.R. 5631) aimed at imposing strict sanctions on the Iranian government for its continued development of ballistic missile technology, support for terrorism, and flagrant human rights abuses.

"While the Obama administration has bent over backwards in the past year to seek understandings with Iran and cordially induce it to comply with its obligations under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, this bill takes a different approach: the right approach," said Smith. "This bill imposes a stiff sanctions regime that makes clear that the United States will give no quarter to this despicable government."

Along with colleagues in the House, Smith took another critical step to block further administration concessions to the Iranian regime by passing the "United States Financial System Protection Act of 2016" (H.R. 4992) on July 14. This measure would prevent President Obama from granting Iran direct or indirect access to U.S. dollars and the U.S. banking system.

"This commonsense measure will deny the Iranian government and Iranian banks access to U.S. dollars until the administration can certify that Iran meets the most fundamental conditions: that Iran stop supporting terrorism and pursuing weapons of mass destruction and other dangerous weapons programs."

Smith voted last year to reject the administration's deal with Iran and warned about the serious flaws, gaps, and huge concessions it contains. By supporting these three bills, he reaffirmed his opposition to the agreement and his vigilance against the threat Iran poses to the U.S. and our closest regional ally, Israel.

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