Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2024

Floor Speech

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Mr. HUIZENGA. Mr. Chair, this is sort of a continuation of my friend Mr. Hill's amendment and Mr. Barr's, and other amendments that we have talked about today, which is really about whether we are going to allow the largest state funder of terrorism to continue to have access to hard dollars and continue to have access to the capital that is funding groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestine Islamic Jihad.

Mr. Chair, the deadly terror attacks of October 7 made one thing abundantly clear: The United States cannot continue to allow the Iranian regime access to funding that, in turn, could be used against our allies and even American citizens.

I am pleased to offer this amendment today, and I hope it will receive bipartisan support because a very similar amendment, Mr. Chair, received a voice vote in 2016 right along these lines.

Last month's barbaric attack against our friends and allies in Israel was a powerful reminder of the dangers posed by Hamas and others.

By the way, Hamas, receives 93 percent of their total funding from Tehran. As we mentioned, Tehran and Iran, being the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism, must be cut off from their ability to wage hostilities abroad.

As far-reaching as our Iranian sanctions are, it may surprise some of my colleagues that we have not actually closed all the financing loopholes. The administration still enjoys significant discretion to permit trade and financial services with these bad actors even if it has nothing to do with humanitarian purposes. My amendment would change this.

Under Executive Order No. 13902, the Trump administration made the construction, mining, manufacturing, and textile sectors of the Iranian economy subject to U.S. sanctions, in addition to sanctions in place, many going back to the 2012 NDAA. The Treasury Department later added the financial sector to this group, blacklisting 18 Iranian banks in October 2020. At the same time, the Treasury's Office of Foreign Asset Control, also known as OFAC, retains broad discretion to license transactions with sanctioned Iranians.

Under the Obama administration's nuclear deal, for example, Treasury licensed aircraft sales to Iran Air, which had previously been sanctioned for providing support to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, also known as the IRGC, and to the Defense Ministry.

An amendment to the FSGG appropriations bill to prohibit these licenses was adopted by the House in 2016 by voice vote.

We must not let licenses undermine sanctions under these executive orders, which is why my amendment would prohibit them if they allow Iran to use the U.S. financial system. It is that simple.

The attack on Israel has underscored how we cannot become complacent when it comes to blocking Iran from the goods, technology, and hard currency it needs to fund terrorist groups, such as Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestine Islamic Jihad, and many others.

In addition to being the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism, Iran has been designated by Treasury as a jurisdiction of primary laundering concern.

Mr. Hill just referenced in his amendment that Treasury does have the ability to put these jurisdictions on money laundering, but they have rescinded that, Mr. Chair. They allow these exemptions.

That is why Mr. Hill's amendment, my amendment, and other amendments are trying to narrow that down and tighten that down. Clearly, we should shield our financial institutions from contact with the country to the fullest extent possible.

Now, let me address potential objections. Some might ask about humanitarian aid under this measure.

My amendment does nothing--let me repeat, nothing--to affect existing exemptions for agricultural commodities, food, medicine, or medical devices. These exemptions have long been codified into our laws, and this amendment does not change that. This is explicit in the text of the amendment.

Mr. Chair, you may have heard and seen those media reports about phantom false billing that might be happening or black market deals where those goods and services are delivered and being misused and even sold on the black market for that cash. That is another issue, and we need to address that, but that is not what we are getting at here in this one.

Others might ask whether this amendment could limit Treasury's ability to license transactions as future ransom for hostages, for example, or even as part of a new nuclear deal.

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Mr. HUIZENGA. Mr. Chair, I encourage my colleagues to vote for my amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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