Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017

Floor Speech

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Mr. BABIN. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of my amendment to prohibit any contracts or Federal assistance to the Islamic Republic of Iran from being funded in this Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill.

As a result of this recent nuclear deal, Iran is now cleared to receive up to $150 billion in assets that should have never made its way back to the Ayatollahs.

Iran is the world's leading State sponsor of terrorism. Any dollar sent to Iran's government is a dollar sent to a brutal, apocalyptic, and dangerous regime that routinely flouts international norms, threatens to wipe Israel off the map, captures and humiliates our U.S. sailors, flagrantly violating Geneva Convention rules, and is responsible for the murders of hundreds of United States soldiers.

Passage of this amendment will wipe the slate clean of any potential for money from the hardworking taxpayers in my district and from across the United States of America to go to Iran. No money for contracts to buy their heavy water, no money for their so-called civilian nuclear power program. Let's not get fooled again like we did with North Korea.

The Iran deal was only given an ``aye'' vote by 162 Members of this House--a very small total. The President may have lifted the sanctions that Congress passed in 2010, but there is no reason that we cannot take this step to show Iran and the world that we are serious about putting them back in place for their flagrant violations.

Mr. Chairman, I urge a ``yes'' vote.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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