Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Acts of 2012

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

PARENT COMPANIES

Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I rise today to engage in a colloquy with my friend, the distinguished Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, regarding HR 1905, the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act of 2012. I want to thank the chairman for crafting a strong sanctions package that includes language I authored to close a loophole in current law that allows foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies to continue doing business with Iran without imposing any penalties on their U.S. parent companies. We must close this loophole once and for all, and I am pleased the Chairman agrees with me.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. LAUTENBERG. Does the chairman agree that the language in the bill currently under consideration would apply the same penalties that can be imposed on U.S. companies that directly violate the U.S. trade ban to those U.S. parent companies whose foreign subsidiaries are doing business with Iran?

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. LAUTENBERG. Does the chairman also agree that this language subjects to penalties U.S. parent companies if their foreign subsidiaries knew or should have known that the subsidiary was directly or indirectly doing business with an Iranian entity, even if it was the case that the parent companies were not actually aware of the activity of the subsidiary?

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. LAUTENBERG. And does the chairman agree that this requirement that the foreign subsidiary knew or should have known that they were doing business with Iran relates only to the actual business transaction and does not require that the subsidiary had or should have had knowledge of current U.S. sanctions law in order to place penalties on the U.S. parent company?

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. LAUTENBERG. I thank Chairman Johnson for all of his work on this important Iran sanctions package. Iran continues to defy numerous United Nations Security Council resolutions. It funds Hamas, Hezbollah, and other terrorist organizations, and it commits severe human rights abuses against its own people. We must do everything we can to place as much pressure on the Iranian regime as possible to change its behavior, and I am pleased that we have finally closed this loophole in current law and put U.S. companies on notice that they will be held responsible for the activities of their subsidiaries with respect to Iran.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source