Iran Sanctions Accountability Act of 2023

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 6015, the Iran Sanctions Accountability Act of 2023 sponsored by Representative Luetkemeyer from the great State of Missouri, of which Kansas City is a part, and it also houses the Chiefs Kingdom.

Mr. Speaker, this bill would require the President to issue regulations that ensure that humanitarian waivers to economic and trade sanctions on Iran do not facilitate sanctions evasion, acts of international terrorism, or the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Currently, in order for nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and others who avail themselves of the license and waiver processes available under comprehensive sanctions regimes, they must undertake extensive efforts to prevent the diversion of goods, services, and funds to the targets of sanctions. Humanitarian groups have shared details with the Financial Services Committee about their stringent process for preventing sanction evasion and terror financing. These standards are imposed internally by the NGOs themselves, for example, through their anticorruption policies, and also externally as seen in the U.S. Government contracting requirements or the anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance measures imposed by their corresponding banking partners.

This bill goes a step further, by requiring the Office of Foreign Assets Control, OFAC, to develop a set of formal rules by which humanitarian exceptions to sanctions will not facilitate, directly or indirectly, support sanctions evasion, acts of international terrorism, or the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

This bill also requires Treasury to instruct the U.S. Director at the World Bank to formally oppose the provision of financial assistance to the Government of Iran. I would note that the U.S. already opposes any financial assistance to the Government of Iran.

Notably, Republicans are moving this bill at the same time that they are trying to jam through the House a much more toxic version of this bill tomorrow, H.R. 6323, which would undermine the President's ability to provide waivers to sanctions for humanitarian assistance. While Mr. Luetkemeyer's bill largely is redundant of existing U.S. policy, Mrs. Kim's bill tomorrow will harm our national interests and America's standing in the world.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill and I reserve the balance of my time.

H.R. 6015 would require the President to ensure that humanitarian exemptions involving U.S. sanctions on Iran do not facilitate acts of international terrorism, transactions with sanctioned persons, or the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

This bill mandates that the President establish clear rules for how such sanctions waivers and licenses can be applied. Unlike many of the other bills offered by my Republican colleagues, this one seems to be largely redundant of existing U.S. policy and affirms the longstanding practice of the United States to offer humanitarian waivers to our comprehensive sanctions to ensure that innocent civilians are not the targets of our sanctions.

Mr. Speaker, I again urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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