Energy Policy and Modernization Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. COONS. Mr. President, today I come again to the floor to speak about the ongoing challenges that we face in our relationship with Iran, about some of the benefits that we have seen through the JCPOA-- the joint comprehensive agreement on the nuclear program that Iran has now significantly set back--and some of the challenges that we face going forward.

We will hear from a number of my colleagues in the next 45 minutes, and I am grateful that they, too, are coming to the floor today to talk about the balance, what there is that we can recognize about the progress we have made under the JCPOA and what there is that remains to be done and that remains as a challenge.

There are some who believe that having reached so-called implementation day means that we have settled our scores with Iran, that there are no more concerns we have, and that we can now expect a complete and positive change in its behavior. But in my view this couldn't be further from the truth. Now more than ever, we cannot afford to take our attention away from Iran.

My colleagues and I are on the floor today to explain why we must do more to strictly enforce this deal and to aggressively push back on Iran's bad behavior outside of the parameters of the nuclear deal. My personal concern is that if we don't, if we don't do this effectively, this important landmark nuclear agreement may not survive even into next year.

Let me at the outset say that there have been some encouraging developments in recent days. It is hugely encouraging to see an American, a U.S. citizen such as Jason Rezaian from the Washington Post, return to United States soil and be reunited with his family. He is someone who had been unjustly detained and sentenced without foundation. He is now once again free. A journalist--the best and brightest of American journalism--is now free and back in the United States.

I also want to recognize former marine Amir Hekmati, who was arrested while visiting his grandmother in Iran. He was also unjustly arrested and detained and is now also free in the United States.

I wish to move to another topic by way of introduction. In the past week alone, the Iranians have signaled that Iran is open for business again as Iran's leaders have hosted Chinese's President Xi Jinping, and Iranian President Ruhani has traveled to Europe to meet with the Pope and with leading officials from the French Government and the Italian Government.

Just a few weeks ago, Iran was still an international pariah. Business deals with the Iranian Government were illegal. Today, some foreign governments--some who are supposed to be our vital partners in enforcing the JCPOA--at times seem all too eager to resume business ties with the regime. At the outset I might caution those allies of ours to be mindful that American sanctions remain in place against Iranian bad behavior--whether it is their support for terrorism, their human rights violations, such as arresting and detaining Americans without foundation, or their illicit ballistic missile program.

So to further expound on the challenges that we face and the importance of having the resources in the U.S. Government and in the international monitoring agency called the IAEA that we need to be successful in enforcing this deal, I wish to invite my colleague from the State of New Hampshire to rise for a few minutes and to share with us her thoughts, having served on the Foreign Relations Committee, having closely studied this deal, and having looked forward to what the opportunities and challenges are for us in the weeks and months ahead.

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Mr. COONS. That would be fine. I think there is a strong point being made by my colleague from New Hampshire that I will just briefly expound upon and then invite my colleague from New Jersey to join in this conversation.

Earlier this month, I traveled with a number of my Senate colleagues to the headquarters of the International Atomic Energy Agency and heard from them directly the same sorts of concerns my colleague from New Hampshire just laid down. They are struggling with how to ensure that they have the resources, the staffing, and the equipment to take on this remarkably broadened scope of inspections.

One of the underappreciated, positive benefits of the JCPOA is that the IAEA now has unprecedented 24/7 access not just to Iran's nuclear enrichment sites but to its centrifuge production workshops, its uranium mines mills, the entire so-called fuel cycle for the production of nuclear material within Iran. So I believe, as does my colleague from New Hampshire, that the IAEA needs and deserves greater funding, more reliable funding, more robust and long-term funding.

The oversight and monitoring mechanisms of the JCPOA, if strictly enforced, can serve as a viable deterrent to Iran's cheating and, in a worst-case scenario, provide the international community with early warning and enough time to respond if Iran decides to break out and dash to a nuclear weapons capability. But access to all of these sites is only valuable if the IAEA has the resources it needs and has asked for to conduct thorough inspections.

So my colleagues and I will be working together with the administration and others of our colleagues in the months ahead to authorize not just an adequate level of funding of 1 year or 2 years in advance but to put in place a long-term, reliable source of funding. As my colleague from New Hampshire said, there could be no better investment than in ensuring deterrence through vigorous and comprehensive inspections to prevent Iran from ever renewing its dream of access to a nuclear weapon. We will press the administration to work with all of us on this and to make this a higher priority going forward.

The idea that we have world-class nuclear scientists in the United States and that the IAEA has world-class nuclear inspectors and together they have developed new technologies and can deploy highly skilled teams to do this monitoring in Iran is a great opportunity, but it is only meaningful if we contribute the resources to ensure that those inspectors do their jobs.

So let me turn to our colleague from the State of New Jersey who wants to speak about some of the pros and cons of this critical turning-point implementation.

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Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I thank my colleague from New Jersey.

I wish to emphasize a point he made. We need to remain vigilant. We need to remain ready to impose additional sanctions on those actions by Iran that are outside the JCPOA. We saw two launches of ballistic missiles by Iran late last year, designations recently having been made of those involved in supporting Iran's ballistic missile program.

There is other bad behavior by Iran--violations of human rights that led to the long and unjust detention of Amir Hekmati and also potentially their increased support for terrorism in the region.

I invite my colleague from New Hampshire to help us understand what barriers there might be to the administration vigorously enforcing the sanctions that remain on the books here in the United States if we as a body don't act to do our part in making sure the administration has the resources they need.

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Mr. COONS. I thank the Senator from New Hampshire.

I want to emphasize again that these three nominees--Tom Shannon, Laura Holgate, and Adam Szubin--have been waiting for months. In particular, Adam Szubin is a nonpartisan career professional, having served in both the Bush and Obama administrations. Being the lead enforcer, the lead investigator in sanctions, he has now been nominated to take on the top role at the Department of Treasury in making sure our sanctions have bite and stick.

Why wouldn't we proceed on a bipartisan basis to give this administration the senior officials and the resources it needs to enforce sanctions, to keep us safe, to make sure this nuclear deal is enforced? Whether we voted for or against it, supported it or opposed it, I can't comprehend why any Senator would consent to the ongoing months-long delay in these vital nominees being confirmed so that the administration can do the job that I believe all of us want them to do, which is to enforce sanctions against Iran for its bad behavior.

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Mr. COONS. Of course.

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Mr. COONS. That is my understanding as well. There is no publicly articulated basis--certainly no basis that has anything do with his qualifications, skills, experience or relevance to the job--as is the case with all three of these nominees.

There are many other nominees we could be talking about, whether for judgeships, ambassadorships or senior positions. These three we have chosen to focus on today because they are so directly relevant to America's national security and to the successful enforcement of this complex nuclear deal with Iran.

As I said, and Senator Shaheen and Senator Booker said earlier, the IAEA has incredibly broad scope to investigate what is going on in Iran, but if we don't have the senior people in our government, in the administration, that can take action when things are discovered in Iran that we want to be active in taking on or when there is bad behavior outside of this nuclear agreement, we have no one to blame but ourselves as a body for failing to provide our administration with the senior leadership and the skills and the resources needed to really defend America.

I wish to encourage and invite my colleague from the State of Connecticut to add, as he wishes today, both the positives about implementation day and the concerns he might have going forward, such as these vital national security nominees whom Senator Shaheen and I have been discussing.

Senator Murphy.

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Mr. COONS. I wish to thank my colleague from Connecticut for his active leadership role on the Foreign Relations Committee and his deep interest in this topic.

By way of transition to my colleague from Pennsylvania, I briefly want to point out this picture of the Arak heavy water reactor in Iran. To me, it is a symbol of both what implementation day and the JCPOA letter promises positively and the unresolved risks it presents.

Implementation day has only been reached because the IAEA--the International Atomic Energy Agency--certified to the world that Iran had taken the very core of this reactor, capable of producing weapons- grade plutonium, and filled it with concrete, rendering it useless for the production of significant quantities of plutonium. That is a significant step forward, but when a reporter asked me the other day: Does Iran still pose a nuclear threat to the United States and our vital ally Israel, I said: Of course. When asked why, I said because they still possess the knowledge, the resources, the engineering, the uranium in the ground, in the mines, in the mills of their country, and the engineers and the facilities to at some point enrich once again to weapons grade. If we don't stay on this, if we don't fund the IAEA effectively to conduct this oversight and these inspections, if we don't stay attentive to this issue, we will simply wake up again at a point 5, 10, 15 years from now and discover that what we have in Iran is a nation that has translated its natural resources, its rich uranium deposits, and its engineering know-how into once again being in a place to threaten the world.

I wish to invite my colleague from Pennsylvania to talk about how our regional vital allies perceive the path forward and what concerns he has and how he sees implementation day.

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Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Pennsylvania for his clear-eyed assessment of the challenges that lie ahead as we try to move past implementation day and into a positive world where together we might be able to provide the administration with the resources they need to enforce the agreement, counter Iran's bad behavior, and deter Iran from any further illicit or bad behavior.

I wish to invite my colleague on the Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Kaine of Virginia, to offer any thoughts he might care to share at this point before we bring this colloquy to a close.

I know Senator Kaine has followed the importance of the inspections regime under the JCPOA closely. As Senator Shaheen and I both referenced earlier, full and robust funding of the IAEA is the only way to ensure they really have the ability to enforce this agreement and make sure this heavy water reactor does not somehow get redesigned, reengineered, and restarted in the future.

I invite my friend and colleague from Virginia to offer his thoughts on how to make sure we are effectively enforcing this deal.

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Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Virginia. We had a terrific experience traveling together to Israel, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Vienna. In Vienna, we met with the leadership of the IAEA. We asked tough questions and learned more about their needs and plans for thoroughly inspecting every aspect of Iran's nuclear program. We heard about the concerns of our close regional allies in Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

We need to strengthen our partnership with regional allies who are uncertain about the future with ISIS but who were, frankly, grateful for the increased intelligence partnerships between the United States, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia, but most importantly with our vital ally Israel, as the good Senator from Virginia has recounted. We heard from the Prime Minister, the Minister of Defense, opposition leadership, and intelligence and defense community leaders that the partnership with the United States is stronger than it has ever been and that they view this path forward with Iran as having challenges and opportunities-- opportunities in terms of intelligence to be gained, opportunities in terms of pushing back on what was a rapidly advancing Iranian nuclear infrastructure and program, and now a challenge--a challenge to work together and provide exactly the sort of oversight and engagement that only a duly-empowered and active Congress can take.

Let me close out the colloquy of six Senators by making a few simple observations, if I might. Congress has an essential role to play in ensuring that this nuclear deal with Iran moves forward and moves forward in our best national interest. Congress should not only provide oversight but also take action. The simplest is a point about which Senator Shaheen spoke at length--the importance of securing key national security nominees essential to the enforcement of sanctions.

We can also take proactive action here in this Chamber by passing the Iran Policy Oversight Act. Its drafting was led by Senator Cardin of Maryland, but a dozen other colleagues--some who opposed and some who supported the deal--joined in as initial cosponsors. It is a bill that would clarify some ambiguous provisions of the JCPOA, establish in statute America's commitment to enforcing the deal, engage us in more comprehensive efforts to counter Iranian activity in the Middle East, and provide increased support to our allies in the region, especially our valued ally Israel. This is a step this body can and should take, and to do so would be much in the bipartisan spirit we saw in the Foreign Relations Committee between Chairman Corker and Ranking Member Cardin that produced the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act.

I think passing the Iran Policy Oversight Act would be a strong and important contribution by this Chamber.

Speaking for only myself, I will also say that I think we should reauthorize the Iran Sanctions Act, which is set to expire this year. Having that law reauthorized would provide a viable framework through which the United States could snap back sanctions if Iran violated the JCPOA.

Each of the ideas we have outlined--confirming vital national security nominees; passing enforcement legislation; and fully funding, reliably and for the long term, the IAEA, the inspections watchdog that is supposed to keep a close and persistent eye on Iran's nuclear facilities represents critical--these represent critical, concrete steps Congress can take.

If the United States alone cannot enforce this complex deal, we have to keep building international support for the imposition of new sanctions to punish Iran for its ongoing human rights abuses, its illegal ballistic missile activity, and its support for terrorism in the Middle East.

If we are going to be serious about our constitutional role to provide for the common defense and general welfare, I would argue that we here in the Senate have a sacred obligation to provide not only oversight of this deal but to also take action and enforce its terms and push back on Iran's bad behavior and to demonstrate to the world that the United States is serious about securing a peaceful, nuclear- free future, as difficult as that may be, for the Middle East.

With that, I thank my colleagues who joined me here on the floor and yield the floor.

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