21st Century Peace Through Strength Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. LAWLER. Madam Chair, I rise in support of the 21st Century Peace through Strength Act.

This bill reverses the Biden administration's relaxed stance toward Iran and China and starts to hold these bad actors accountable.

Two of my bills, the SHIP Act and the Iran-China Energy Sanctions Act, are included in this package. Both of these bills target the illicit oil trade between Iran and China.

One of my bills imposes sanctions on foreign ports and refineries that process Iranian oil, many of which are located in China.

My other bill imposes sanctions on Chinese financial institutions that process transactions involving Iranian oil as well as anyone involved in Iran's missile and drone program.

Iran is exporting millions of barrels of petroleum every day. Eighty percent of these exports go to China. Iran has taken in over $88 billion from their illicit oil trade since President Biden took office, and they must not earn a cent more.

To be clear, these illicit funds are used to fund Iran's regime of terror, including backing Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and other terrorist groups, as well as their direct assault on Israel last weekend.

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Mr. LAWLER. Madam Chair, now is the time for America to lead, to support our allies, to combat our adversaries, and to continue our role as leader of the free world.

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Mr. LAWLER. Madam Chair, I rise in support of this amendment, and I am proud to be a cosponsor of Representative Nunn's legislation, the Revoke Iranian Funding Act, that this came out of. In the wake of the appalling terrorist attack against Israel, it is clear that we must work to confront Iran and its surrogates in the region with a strong sanctions regime.

Iran is the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world, spending its money on terror, on developing nuclear capabilities, on taking hostages to use for bargaining purposes, and on funding the criminal IRGC.

Among other provisions, this commonsense measure would provide transparency on which sanctions authorities the President is failing to exercise and where we can continue to cut off Iran's funding.

Madam Chair, I urge all of my colleagues to support this amendment.

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