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

Floor Speech

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Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, as we leave Washington for our summer recess, we are also marking the 1-year anniversary of the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, JCPOA, by the P5+1. A number of my colleagues have come to the floor to mark this occasion, led by our friend and colleague, Senator Coons of Delaware. This nuclear agreement provides profoundly important time to hold Iran accountable--time that is supremely valuable but only if we use it wisely. That lesson should animate the conversation around the country, as well as in this Chamber, that time must be used wisely, energetically, and aggressively to make sure that we prevent a nuclear-armed Iran and also stop its funding and support for terrorist extremism.

We must use the time provided for us by this agreement to confront Iran's maligned activities beyond its nuclear program, to fortify the security of the United States and Israel, our major strategic partner in the region, and to ensure that we are working in close coordination with this all-important ally. We must make sure that our positions are aligned when they need to be, that there is no space, no daylight between Israel and the United States where we must and should be working together.

We need to enhance strong enforcement of the JCPOA, our nuclear agreement, with the P5+1 to ensure that Iran is never able to break across the enrichment threshold to obtain a nuclear weapon.

The simple, stark fact is that we are at war with ISIS--whatever it is called; ISIL or by any other name--and we are in that war to win. We must win it. The fact is that we are succeeding, but ISIS is also enhancing its activity as it metastasizes with extremist violence sponsored, supported, and inspired around the world--in Europe, as well as in this country in San Bernardino and Orlando--where massacres are stated to be in alignment with and supported and inspired by ISIS, and where ISIS itself is claiming credit for those activities.

In the Middle East, Iran continues to be a leading state sponsor of terrorism. Irrespective of the nuclear agreement, we must work together to find new ways to push back on Iran's financing of terrorism. Just recently, the international financial action task force made the alarming decision to suspend countermeasures against Iran for 12 months concerning its money-laundering and terrorist-finding activities. This action is truly appalling, as I have made clear in a letter that I wrote and led to our Treasury Secretary, Jack Lew, with seven of my Senate colleagues urging him to address this dangerous decision to prevent any further attempts to reintegrate Iran into the international banking system as Iran has not eliminated its entrenched practice of financing terrorism.

Again, time is only as valuable as we make it. We must use the time we have under this agreement to separate Iran from its terror proxies, such as Hezbollah and the Assad regime. That is why I also support the Senate moving to extend the Iran Sanctions Act.

Now is the time to call Iran to account for and identify and target the specific individuals and entities engaged in terrorist financing, human rights violations, and fueling the tragic Syrian conflict that has killed so many innocent people and separated so many from their homes, particularly children whom I have seen in one of the refugee camps in Jordan.

Each year, as part of the current tenure or memorandum of understanding on the U.S. military assistance with Israel, we provide Israel with more than $3 billion in aid. As a member of the Armed Services Committee, I have been fighting to ensure that this year's Defense bill will fund Israel's missile defense programs and will continue to do so as we enter the conference with the House on the NDAA, which we will do shortly. Our goal has to be to reach the $601 million that has been authorized. I am hopeful we will do so. I will fight to make sure that the conference committee report includes that number.

While I know these annual increases for missile programs are vital to our defense cooperation, we really need a long-term agreement to defend Israel against threats in an uncertain regional environment and to ensure its qualitative military edge over Iran or any other adversary.

We need to use this time to renew a robust, decade-long memorandum of understanding on U.S. military assistance, or MOU, with Israel as soon as possible. I am hopeful that the MOU will be concluded as quickly as possible. Indeed, last November Senator Bennet and I co-led a letter to the President concerning the need to renew this MOU, and I followed up in April with another letter by Senators Coons and Graham, a bipartisan effort on the same issue.

The MOU needs a historic increase in military aid. And one other point. I know that much of that assistance is used in the United States to make equipment, like the Joint Strike Fighter, whose engines are manufactured in Connecticut, but Israel should also retain some flexibility to use these funds to develop its own unique capabilities. The current MOU allows Israel to harness 26.3 percent of our security assistance to purchase domestic Israeli equipment, and I urge the administration to work to maintain this goal in the next MOU. We must rely on American manufacturing and American jobs where there is value added and whenever possible, but Israel has the same interest in its production capacity and its defense industrial base, and both must be strong and aligned.

As I look forward to the year coming and to the enforcement of the nuclear agreement, I believe we must, very frankly, do a better job of enforcement, as I am positive that Iran will test us and seek any advantage it can find. That is the stark, simple truth about that agreement.

This administration and any President who follows must harness the tools provided in the nuclear agreement to know what Iran is doing and bring transparency that will push back Iran's breakout time and deter any failure of compliance. The IAEA must be fully funded, and we must have more inspectors on the ground to keep an eye on Iran's facilities. The best agreement in the world is meaningless if it is unenforced. I know that from my own background as a law enforcer for most of my professional career. The law is dead letter if it is not enforced effectively and aggressively, with the credibility that deters violation.

As we move past the 1-year mark, the United States must strengthen enforcement actions against Iran. We must do everything possible to hold Iran accountable, and that action must include passing the Iran Policy Oversight Act--legislation led by my distinguished colleague Senator Cardin, the ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee, and I am an original cosponsor of it and helped to draft and lead it. It will strengthen and improve the nuclear agreement--in no way contradicting or undermining it--by providing vital oversight and vigorous enforcement to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran.

It addresses three preeminent priorities--steps that are well within Congress's power, its proper authority, and its control. First, it enshrines in our law that our policy on deterrence remains in effect and that all options, including military options, remain on the table. Second, this bill reaffirms our dedication to countering Iranian terrorism, as well as Iranian human rights violations and its regional influence that may perniciously undermine the stability of the area by providing a regional strategy and strong sanctions. Third, the bill empowers our allies--especially Israel, our key strategic partner in the Middle East--to counter Iran and its terror proxies by authorizing the President to provide Israel with additional military aid, intelligence cooperation, and missile defense codevelopment.

This nuclear agreement, the JCPOA, provides us time. It is valuable time if we use it to stop a nuclear Iran, but it is only as valuable as we make it. That fact bears repeating, as I have repeated it again and again. The time must be used to support Israel with a historic increase of military aid and push for strong enforcement of this agreement to set back the clock on Iran's apparently ceaseless nuclear ambition.

I look forward to working with my Senate colleagues and the administration on these issues in the time to come. My hope is that this effort will continue to be, as it has been very earnestly, a bipartisan effort. We can never allow partisan differences to come between us on this issue. There should be no space between us across the aisle, and there should be none between Israel and the United States in seeking to stop a nuclear-armed Iran, seeking to halt its sponsorship of terrorism that endangers us both as nations seeking to advance common interests where we have them and where our vital national strategic goals align.

Thank you, Mr. President.

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