Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2019

Floor Speech

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Mr. DeSANTIS. Mr. Chairman, this amendment is a simple limitation amendment. No funds made available by this act may be used to purchase heavy water from the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Why are we doing this? Iran is the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism, fomenting discord all across the Middle East, funding Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon while supporting the Houthis in Yemen.

Iran provided deadly, military-grade explosives to militias in Iraq, killing hundreds of American servicemembers during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Iran has never been held accountable for that. They still have major control over portions of Iraq, and the Shiite militias they back are running rampant.

Furthermore, we know that Iran is working to be the key outside player in Syria in an effort to expand control from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea.

As you know, the JCPOA was effectively an Obama executive agreement, never ratified by Congress or enacted into law. It was sold using lies and propaganda, and it provided Iran with an economic lifeline. It provided Iran with $150 billion in sanctions relief and even airlifted $1.7 billion in cold, hard cash to Tehran.

Just yesterday, we learned that the Obama administration secretly granted a license authorizing the conversion of Iranian assets worth billions of U.S. dollars using the U.S. financial system despite repeated assurances to the public and Congress that Iran would not be granted access to the U.S. financial system.

The Obama administration continually offered gratuitous concessions to Iran that went beyond even the unilateral concessions contained in the Iran deal.

And that is where this heavy water limitation amendment comes in. The Obama administration was using tax dollars to purchase heavy water from Iran. That is money over and above what the Iran deal provided. And that damage has been significant.

Now, President Trump has withdrawn the U.S. from the JCPOA. My amendment, though, is simple. We just should not use tax dollars to subsidize Iran's nuclear activities through the purchase of heavy water.

I don't think the President would want to do that, but I think it is important that we continue with this in law, which we have had now for over a year. I think it will ensure that the mistakes of the past are not repeated.

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Mr. DeSANTIS. Mr. Chairman, I am prepared to close.

I just urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on the amendment. It has been in law before. We have passed it out of this House 2 years in a row. We should do it again.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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