No U.S. Financing for Iran Act of 2023

Floor Speech

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Mr. HUIZENGA. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, our friend and ally was just attacked by Iran, the world's leading state sponsor of terror.

When the Committee on Financial Services held a hearing on my bill last November following the atrocities of October 7, I remarked at that time that it was timely.

Well, today, it is timely as well. We are at yet another inflection point. Iran's direct attack on Israel this weekend demonstrates that the U.S. must hold Iran accountable. One significant way to do this is by cutting off Iran's access to the funding it uses to finance terrorism.

H.R. 5921 does exactly what it says. It stops Iran from being able to use the U.S. financial system, while ensuring that institutions under our committee's jurisdiction keep their distance from the government in Tehran.

As we all know, Iran remains one of the most heavily sanctioned countries in the world. However, many of those sanctions that are put in place are imposed through executive order. It is time that we codify them in law.

H.R. 5921 does three main things:

First, it prohibits Treasury from issuing licenses that allow U.S. financial institutions to enable trade with Iran. That is what is happening right now, Mr. Speaker. Treasury is issuing licenses for that business activity.

It is clear that we must take all necessary steps to protect the integrity of the U.S. financial institutions by prohibiting these licenses that allow Tehran to trade oil and gas and other goods and facilitate, therefore, its support of terrorism.

Second, this bill further cuts off financing for Iran from the world's lender of last resort, the International Monetary Fund, the IMF. While Iran is not currently seeking assistance from the Fund, it certainly could as an IMF member country. My bill makes clear that the United States, as the IMF's largest shareholder, would oppose any such request.

This prohibition would actually further extend to the IMF Special Drawing Rights program, which in 2021 Iran utilized--just 3 years ago-- to access approximately $5 billion, so we have seen the IMF already be used by the ayatollahs in Iran to finance terrorists.

Lastly, my bill extends an existing prohibition against the Export- Import Bank financing projects in Iran and that benefit Iran's leaders.

Mr. Speaker, I will note one exception that we have included in this bill before us today, and it is a very important one. I know it is an important one to some of my colleagues, and I think my friend from Missouri is one of those folks.

U.S. law has long exempted humanitarian assistance from sanctions so as not to punish innocent civilians but to go after the leaders of the country. My bill is targeted. It tightens our grip on the ayatollahs and the Iranian leaders while permitting licenses to allow for humanitarian aid to continue to flow to the Iranian people. This is as clear as day in the text of the bill.

Mr. Speaker, let's not forget that, in January, an Iranian-backed proxy militia group conducted a lethal drone attack on a U.S. base in Jordan. The attack resulted in the deaths of 3 American servicemembers and injured over 40 others. This was a direct attack on our troops.

This occurred as the administration continues to ignore calls from our committee to provide transparency surrounding the most recent sanction waivers granted over the last year.

By allowing sanction waivers to continue, the administration is maintaining a financial lifeline to the Iranian regime, even as it continues to support terrorist organizations around the world, and now Iran directly attacked our ally, Israel.

Mr. Speaker, when our fellow Americans deposit their earnings in a U.S. bank or entrust the government with their tax dollars, they do so assuming that the money will not be used in ways that undermine the security of our Nation. We cannot say today that is, in fact, the case.

These are commonsense but long-overdue prohibitions in my bill here today.

Let's hold this Iranian regime accountable with this bipartisan bill. It will make sure that our U.S. financial system is safe, and it will prohibit the World Bank and the IMF from being able to finance anything dealing with Iran.

Mr. Speaker, I urge swift passage of the No U.S. Financing for Iran Act.

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