Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2017

Floor Speech

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Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Chair, the last amendment dealt with the actual sale of the planes. The Iran nuclear deal, the JCPOA, does provide that we should license those planes if we are sure they are going to be used for civilian purposes. So there is, at least, some argument about what Iran is supposed to get under the JCPOA.

This amendment deals with whether we finance airplanes, whether they are made by Boeing or Airbus or anybody else, and exactly what we are going to let our banks finance.

This amendment has nothing to do with the JCPOA, the Iran nuclear deal. Nothing in that agreement promises, hints, or even discusses the possibility that we would go so far as to lend money to one of the state sponsors of terrorism.

I know there is concern: Do we want to boycott everybody in the world? There are only three countries that are state sponsors of terrorism, and two of them--Syrian and Sudan--no bank would lend money to. So this is one country that we have to deal with that is a state sponsor of terrorism that might borrow money.

Why shouldn't we allow it?

First, because we shouldn't allow our banks to endanger their depositors' money with loans to Iran.

Second, because we don't want major banks lobbying this Congress and saying: ``Oh, my God, you have got to be nice to the Iranians or we won't get paid back and we might fail and then you will have to bail us out.'' We don't need Wall Street to become a lobbyist for Iran.

Finally, because when it comes to fairness under the Iran deal, some say the Iranians have violated it. Some say they are barely technically complying. But everyone agrees they are not overperforming, they are not erring in the direction of being consistent with the overall purposes of the deal. There is no reason we should massively overperform and provide financing we didn't even hint that we might do.

Finally, keep in mind what we would be financing if we finance these planes. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have been killed. Most of the country is either in an internal exile or is fleeing the country. Bodies wash up on the beaches of Greek islands from people who risk their lives to escape an Assad regime that is kept in power by the thugs, the money, and the weapons carried to Damascus by Iran.

We don't have to finance this terrorism. We're not obligated to do so, even if we are going to be in the strictest compliance with the JCPOA. We shouldn't expose our banks to that risk.

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