No U.S. Financing for Iran Act of 2023

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, let me preface my comments by saying, in harmony with Mr. Huizenga, that I, too, find what happened over the weekend with Iran sending over 300 missiles into Israel obscene, just as what Hamas did on October 7 in Israel was brutal and inhumane.

Mr. Speaker, I rise now in opposition to H.R. 5921, sponsored by Congressman Huizenga.

This bill would cause, I believe, significant harm to our national security and harm America's small businesses trying to sell their products overseas.

In what is clearly a very rushed attempt to give the impression that House Republicans know how to govern, they have brought this bill to the floor 5 months after Democrats overwhelmingly rejected it. Rather than actually taking action to respond to Iran's attack on Israel, House Republicans would rather deny assistance to every developing country in the world and halt financing for small businesses at the Export-Import Bank.

First, this bill would prevent the Treasury Secretary from agreeing to an increase in the International Monetary Fund Special Drawing Rights, which are essentially the currency of the IMF. The last increase, approved by Secretary Yellen in 2021, successfully was used by countries around the world to respond to the pandemic by bolstering their balance sheets. Sub-Saharan African countries were able to exchange their SDRs for U.S. dollars at no cost to U.S. taxpayers.

Republicans claim that Iran would be able to use its allocation of SDRs for terrorist financing, but the U.S. has effectively blocked Iran from doing that. Iran cannot convert SDRs to dollars because no country would want to be sanctioned for doing so.

You don't have to believe what I am saying. Iran's SDRs remain untouched decades after first receiving them. It has not used one single dollar in this century.

Rather than offer legislation like Ranking Member Waters' bill that would target the ghost fleet that Iran uses to evade U.S. oil sanctions and which passed the committee by a wide bipartisan vote, House Republicans are using Iran's attack to target a source of funding for developing countries that they have long loathed.

What is more, by undermining the ability of the IMF to increase its SDRs, we are only handing a victory to China, which longs to see the IMF, the World Bank, and the other U.S.-led international institutions fail.

The second significant concern is that H.R. 5921 would halt all Ex-Im financing, including for small businesses in the U.S., because it would require Ex-Im to go back and reevaluate every single transaction to look for terrorist financing. Ex-Im already has done this, but the Republicans want to make it look as if they are doing something by making Ex-Im do it again at great cost to our economy.

I don't need to remind this House that the last time Republicans were in charge, they shuttered the Ex-Im Bank for 5 months, and it was only after Democrats successfully used a discharge petition that it was reopened. Later, in 2019, Democrats passed the longest reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank. Nevertheless, Republicans are using this crisis to once again undermine an agency that they want to cut.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 5921 will do nothing to deter or punish Iran for its first direct assault on Israel but instead will harm our national standing at the IMF, the livelihood of countless small businesses that rely on Ex-Im financing to sell their products overseas, and our national security.

Mr. Speaker, by offering H.R. 5921 today and in this fashion, House Republicans are trying to hide the fact that they are not capable of governing this Chamber. Rather than offer legislation that would respond to Iran's attack on Israel, the ongoing humanitarian disaster in Gaza, or the devastating war waged by Russia's Putin on the people of Ukraine, House Republicans are instead trying to undermine the International Monetary Fund and the Export-Import Bank.

This bill will only harm U.S. businesses, our friends and allies around the world, and our international standing, but I am afraid that seems to be the point.

I will also note that Republicans are bringing this bill up under a process that is reserved for bills that are actually bipartisan. Most Democrats in the committee rejected this bill, and I expect the same will happen today.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to please vote ``no'' on H.R. 5921, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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