Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2017--Motion to Proceed--

Floor Speech

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Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, 2 days ago, five police officers were shot and killed and others were very seriously wounded in the middle of a rally trying to bring people together, trying to allow Americans to be able to have what many call our ``conversation on race.''

As several have mentioned on this floor before about my friend the junior Senator from South Carolina, Tim Scott--Senator Scott commented on race all this week, as have several others on this floor who have talked about it. I hear many people in my own State and in the conversations I have had around my State speak about issues of race, and I keep hearing this ongoing statement: We need to have a greater conversation about race.

Somewhat, I think, we as a nation are confused about how this actually gets resolved in some ways. So I wanted to make a quick comment and a challenge to my fellow Senators and others who may be around. The challenge is very straightforward and simple. We talk about a conversation on race as if it is something that can happen nationally at a rally, at a protest, in the media, among leaders. It is not really how America solves issues and problems. We solve it around dinner tables. That has always been the place that we have resolved issues as a nation. It is our families who sit down together and get a chance to talk it out.

Over the past week, I have had this reoccurring conversation with people--just a simple question: Have you ever had a family of another race sit down with your family for dinner at your home? Have you ever invited another family of another race to your home for dinner?

That doesn't seem like a challenging question, but I have been amazed at the number of people I have posed that question to who have looked at me, who have hesitated, and said: Of course, I have.

Then I said: When?

They had to hesitate and think and said: No, I don't think, really, that has ever happened. I have people I work with, people I interact with, play sports with, go to school with, and live in my neighborhood, but I don't think I have ever had a family of a different race than mine over for dinner.

Here is my simple challenge to us. If we are going to have a conversation about race, maybe the conversation should start with each of our families at our dinner tables. It is what Senator Scott mentioned earlier. I have laid out a challenge, just a simple statement, what I call Solution Sundays. If you are going to be part of this solution in America, maybe on a Sunday for lunch or for dinner, invite another family over of another race just to sit and have conversation. Everybody can put their feet under the same table and develop a friendship and a relationship.

Every person can do that. Every person can be a part of the solution. Every person in our country can start to move that conversation a little farther. It is part of who we are.

We don't solve things based on a vote in America, we solve things around our dinner table.

I would challenge every American to invite someone from another race to their home, just sit and have Sunday lunch together and watch and begin to see what happens in our Nation. Iran

Mr. President, today is also an anniversary day. Today is happy birthday to the JCPOA, what is commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal. Happy birthday, you are 1-year old today.

In many ways we have seen some progress in some areas. Iran does have fewer centrifuges now than what they had a year ago. Iran has allowed the inspectors to come into some locations. That is a positive thing. Iran has allowed engagement in some of their purchasing of some of their nuclear materials. That is a positive thing, and I am grateful for the progress.

I hope that progress continues, but at this point it is just a hope. Quite frankly, today, for me, recognizing the 1-year birthday of the Iran nuclear deal is a reminder to the administration that America and the Congress have not forgotten that this is a deal that has to be implemented with great strength, because the issues that we face in relationship with Iran are a multitude.

Let me just highlight a few things just to be able to talk through some of the issues that I have seen and things that are still coming, things that have happened in the past year and things that are still to come.

For instance, in the past year the international community has released around $100 billion to Iran. So $100 billion has flown back to them. What has happened in that time period? Well, they have recapitalized their banks. They have recapitalized in several areas they have needed in their economy, but they have also increased their military defense spending by 90 percent in the past year. That flood of money has accelerated the Iranian military buildup. We have actually contributed to that as Americans.

About a month or so after and shortly connected to the Iran nuclear deal being announced and going through the process, Iran released several folks who were considered hostages by the Americans--Americans jailed in Iran. They released those individuals and shortly thereafter the administration released $1.7 billion to Iran from the Judgment Fund, saying this was part of the return from some of the money that was required from Iran from 1979 in the fall of the Shah--$1.7 billion.

Interestingly enough, months later, Iran, in its movement, increased its military spending exactly $1.7 billion, and the Iranians announced those two were connected. American tax dollars directly funded $1.7 billion of Iranian military buildup.

I wish I could even stop there. Just months ago, the administration announced that we were going to start purchasing heavy water from Iran.

You see, we don't produce our own heavy water. Heavy water is used in development of nuclear materials for a nuclear weapon, but it is also used in research. The United States doesn't produce our own heavy water. We purchase it from Canada mostly.

But instead, this time we purchased nuclear water for over $8 million from Iran. So we didn't purchase from our ally, but we purchased from Iran.

I wish I could tell you that is all it is, but this is what Secretary Moniz announced with this statement upon the purchase of that heavy water from Iran:

The idea is: OK, we tested it, it's perfectly good heavy water. It meets spec. We'll buy a little of this.

He said:

That will be a statement to the world: ``You want to buy heavy water from Iran, you can buy heavy water from Iran. It's been done. Even the United States did it.''

In the past year we have moved from sanctions on Iran to being Iran's salesman, to helping them sell heavy water to the world, telling them: Don't buy from our allies in Canada anymore. We tested the Iranian water, and we like it. You should buy that.

That is a pretty big shift in the last year, to move from ``we have sanctions on you as a terrorist nation'' to ``we are your salesmen.'' People of the world should start buying their heavy nuclear water from Iran.

That is all just in the past year. I wish I could stop, but many people have noticed, if they are watching the media at all, that Iran has launched multiple test missiles in the past several months. On October 10, they launched a missile with an 800-mile range. On November 21, they launched another long-range missile. On March 8 and March 9, they launched other missiles as test missiles.

All of these are in violation of the missile test treaty ban that has been in place for years on Iran. What has been done so far to be able to sanction back down sanctions? Nada.

They are recapitalizing their military. They are testing new missiles that are capable of carrying nuclear armaments. They are continuing to pursue nuclear materials in opposition to the direct agreement.

Just days ago, Germany released a long report from their domestic intelligence agency, which is their equivalent of our FBI. They released a statement saying the findings by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution--that is their FBI--in a 317-page report said they had found that Iran had a clandestine effort to seek illicit nuclear technology and equipment from German companies at what is even, by international standards, a quantitatively and actively high level.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel underscored the findings in a statement to Parliament saying: Iran violated the U.N. Security Council's anti-missile development regulations, seeking nuclear materials in a quantitatively high level from German companies in a clandestine way. Angela Merkel is saying they are continuing to press on the missile side of things. They are continuing to advance.

At the same time, out in plain sight, Iran has purchased the S-300 missile defense system from Russia. They continue to have a tremendous number of religious- and human-rights-documented prisoners in Iran. There are an estimated 821 individuals right now. By the way, some of those also are Americans who are currently imprisoned in Iran right now--some of them just for the practice of a minority faith.

Just weeks ago, I asked DNI Clapper, the President's Director of National Intelligence: What has changed in Iran's being the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world in the last year?

His response to me was this: Nothing. They are still advancing against Bahrain to have a coup. They are still funding the civil war and coup that is happening in Yemen. They are still funding Hezbollah. They are still propping up Assad. In fact, I have increased their funding levels there.

All of those things still continue to advance, just with more money and with more supplies now than what they had in the past.

It is the 1-year birthday of the Iran nuclear deal. Iran is a rising power in the region and continues to advance toward nuclear technology. So what are we going to do about it?

One is that we need to continue to remind everyone who is out there that this is a very serious threat. Iran with a nuclear weapon is completely unacceptable in this world. The largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world should not have nuclear weapons. The world community should at least agree on that.

I have pushed on several areas. I authored a deal dealing with its resolution, in fact, detailing when the administration should do snapbacks. The administration has been very vague about when they will actually snap back sanctions. So we took their deal, which they had, went through it in great detail, put it in technical language, and put it in a resolution to clearly state: Here are the boundaries of this resolution so it has no fuzzy gray areas.

Through an appropriations amendment, we have also demanded that we get greater detail of the $1.7 billion in transfer money from the Judgment Fund that was transferred to Iran. Currently, we have almost no detail on that other than that we know Iran used it for its military development because they announced that and put that out.

Third, I have worked with Senator Fischer from Nebraska creating a Judgment Fund transparency piece so that we will never again transfer American dollars to any state sponsor of terrorism around the world. Couldn't we have that as minimum criteria--that we will not spend the hard-earned tax dollars of Americans to help supply the military requirements of a larger state sponsor of terrorism?

I cosponsored a bill with Senator Rubio which prohibits giving Ex-Im financing to any company in Iran or to Iran in general to make sure that Iran is not coming, again, to the American taxpayer to be able to get some sort of subsidies to be able to do that.

And as I have mentioned before, we will continue to remind the administration that no one is forgetting because we do not have the option of losing track of a nuclear Iran.

Happy birthday to the Iran nuclear deal. I hope that in the years ahead, we can say that we have a non-nuclear power Iran, but I will tell you that based on what has happened in the past year, I remain incredibly skeptical of that.

I yield back the remainder of my time.

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