Iran Sanctions Extension Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. CONNOLLY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New York (Mr. Engel) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Royce) for their fine work.

I rise today in support of H.R. 6297, the Iran Sanctions Extension Act.

When Congress considered the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action last year, which I supported, we acknowledged that this deal was not a panacea. It was not designed to resolve the myriad issues that undergird the U.S. and our allies in their relationship with the repressive regime in Tehran and its reprehensible support for terrorist insurgencies throughout the region.

No one agreement is comprehensive. It wasn't in the Soviet era, and it isn't in this era either.

The Iran deal is designed to eliminate Iran's path to developing a nuclear weapon and roll it back in exchange for the lifting of all U.S. nuclear-related sanctions.

Abandoning this deal or reinstating the U.S. nuclear-related sanctions against Iran would be a dangerous course of action, introducing unnecessary risks into an already fraught relationship and into an already delicately balanced multilateral agreement, especially because the deal is, in fact, working. Iran has met the metrics set forth, rather rigorous metrics, in the reversal of its nuclear development program.

However, the scope of the Iran Sanctions Act extends far beyond nuclear-related sanctions, as do our points of contention with the Iranian regime. Iran continues to engage in a variety of unacceptable and destabilizing activities, including domestic human rights abuses, supporting terrorist groups in the region, and advancing an illicit ballistic missile program that is of concern, as Mr. Hoyer just mentioned.

We absolutely can and must continue implementation of the Iran deal while simultaneously extending this act as leverage to combat Iran's other unconscionable behavior.

I want to thank the majority for bringing to the floor a clean reauthorization of the Iran Sanctions Act, which in doing so safeguards a longstanding bipartisan consensus to counter Iran, something I think we need, especially after this election, more than ever before.

Again, I commend the chairman and the ranking member for their leadership.

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