Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

Floor Speech

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Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I stand in support of the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions Accountability and Divestment Act of 2010.

As a cosponsor of the Iran Sanctions Act, I congratulate the conferees for building on the best features of that bill, and the Senate version, to produce bipartisan legislation that moves beyond our initial focus on restricting refined oil supplies and creates sweeping and strong new sanctions on banks doing business with Iran.

If Iran continues with its illegal nuclear enrichment activities, it will threaten the stability of the Middle East, threaten the security of its neighbors, including Israel, and jeopardize the international counter-proliferation regime. This bill directs the President to take additional measures to stop those efforts.

The measure codifies longstanding executive orders that limit the goods exempted under the American trade embargo against Iran and includes new provisions that hold U.S. and foreign banks accountable for their actions and for the actions of their subsidiaries.

Some highlights of the bill include provisions that impose sanctions on foreign insurance, financing and shipping companies that sell energy related goods and services to Iran; new prohibitions on American banks doing business with any foreign bank that facilitates Iran's illicit nuclear program; three new sanctions that prohibit Iranian access to foreign exchange in the U.S.; new prohibitions on access to the U.S. banking system; and a prohibition on property transactions in the U.S. The bill even touches on the U.S. government procurement sector by requiring a certification from a company bidding on a U.S. government contract that it is not engaged in sanctionable conduct.

These new sanctions compliment efforts by the European Union, the United Nations and the Obama Administration, to create a web of restrictions designed to cut Iran off from the international financial community if it does not abandon it illicit enrichment activities. The European Union passed a sanctions package that places restrictions on Iran's trade, banking and insurance sectors in addition to instituting new prohibitions on key sectors of Iran's gas and oil industry. The United Nations Security Council passed its fourth round of sanctions against military purchases, trade and financial transactions carried out by the Revolutionary Guard, which controls the nuclear program and has taken a more central role in running the country and the economy.

The Obama Administration recently placed dozens of Iranian companies and senior Iranian officials on a U.S. financial industry blacklist, appointed as a special adviser on nonproliferation and arms control Robert Einhorn, a man the Chinese government calls ``the dentist'' for the way he extracts painful concessions during negotiations, and the administration is working with the Israeli government to ensure that Iranians who are key to Iran's nuclear program and who may want to leave Iran, are able to do so.

Iran's refusal to heed repeated warnings about its illegal enrichment activities must be met with resolve. All options must remain on the table. When combined with the efforts of the Obama Administration and our allies, this bill helps ensure that the president has at his disposal a full range of tools to deal with Iran. I encourage my colleagues to join me in support of this bill.

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