Prohibiting Future Ransom Payments to Iran Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. DUFFY. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Chairman, I want to take a moment and thank Chairman Royce for all of his work on this commonsense bill.
But I have to say I am a little bit shocked that Chairman Royce has to put so much work into this kind of a bill to prohibit cash payments to Iran, the lead sponsor of terrorism in the world. Shame on us for being in a situation where we need legislation to stop cash payments to a state sponsor of terror.
Have we so soon forgotten what happened on 9/11? Have we so soon forgotten Iran's role in 9/11 15 years ago?
Just recently, former U.S. Senator and Democratic Party vice presidential nominee Joe Lieberman quoted the 9/11 Commission saying that there is strong evidence that Iran facilitated the transit of al Qaeda members into and out of Afghanistan before 9/11 and that some of these were future 9/11 hijackers.
Iran supports international terror. They have been designated a state sponsor of terror since 1984.
We know that the currency of terror is what?
It is cash. They use cash to fund terrorism.
So instead of saying, Do you know what, we are going to make payments--if payments have to be made--by wire transfer to some Iranian bank in Europe where those payments can be traced, we say, No, no, no; we have been so successful in cutting them off from the financial world, we want to make these payments in cash to them.
It is illegal right now for us to actually load up a plane full of cash and send it from the U.S. to Iran. So the recent transaction that happened to get around that rule, the administration--President Obama and Jack Lew--said: We are going to wire the money. We are going to actually wire the money. We are going to wire it to a European bank and instruct them to convert it to cash and send it to Iran.
Shame on the American administration and shame on this House for not stopping it.
This is just commonsense American policy that we have had in place for a long time that now is being rolled back by this administration. We have had so many people on both sides of the aisle who understand the threat of terror and the threat of cash in terrorists' hands that we have all stood together. We now see a division in this House to not support that very commonsense effort, which is an effort to support the American citizens and their safety. I think this is a sad day for this institution.
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Mr. DUFFY. Mr. Chairman, I would just note that the chairman's bill and my amendment don't prohibit cash payments to a lot of countries around the world. It restricts cash payments to only a few countries around the world and those countries that are American designated states that sponsor terrorism.
I don't mean to lecture anybody about 9/11. I didn't live in New York, I am not from New York, but I watched what happened in New York. And I think it is important that we not forget what happened, who was responsible, and that we don't lose our focus today for partisan reasons on who those bad actors are, and that we remain vigilant in our effort to push back and fight back against state sponsors of terror. And part of that fight is the fight against allowing them cash.
On the Financial Services Committee--I know Mr. Royce works on this aggressively--we can use the global financial system to shut them out, and we have been successful at that. But if you open up the global financial system and you pour cash and gold into Iran that can be used to sponsor terror, to buy technology in regard to missiles, or to advance your nuclear program, that has a direct impact on all Americans, our security, and our safety.
I think it is incumbent upon this House to look out first for our constituents and our countrymen, which means let's prohibit cash payments, not any payment. You can make a wire transfer that you can actually trace. But let's not send cash payments that are untraceable to State sponsors of terror.
I yield back the balance of my time.
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