Protecting Volunteer Firefighters and Emergency Responders Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. ELLISON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I want to thank the chairman and ranking member for the time.

Also, I just want to acknowledge to my colleagues that we are here to talk about the best way to make sure that Iran does not acquire a nuclear weapon. I am convinced that what we do here today is not the best way to do that.

I am convinced that the best way to make sure that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon is to allow the Commander in Chief, Chief Executive of this country, to negotiate a deal, and then Congress will be asked to relieve any sanctions, if that is warranted, and we will be able to weigh in at that time, which is the proper time. We will be able to have oversight hearings without regard to this legislation or any other, at any time we choose.

This piece of legislation, I believe, improperly, in an unhelpful manner, restrains the President by tying his hands, significantly delaying the implementation of a peace agreement, weakens our negotiating position by strengthening Iranian hard-liners--who will argue that the U.S. will not repeal sanctions even if Iran complies with the final deal--and sends a signal to the international community that the U.S. Congress is setting the stage to vote down a final agreement, compromising our relationships with NATO allies and international partners that have implemented the sanctions regime and that brought about Iran to the negotiating table.

It is very important that we acknowledge it was not the U.S. sanctions alone that has brought Iran to the negotiating table. It has been the international community and the cooperation we have enjoyed with the international community that has brought them to the negotiating table.

If we start operating as if we are going to change the deal, we signal to our partners that we are operating in less than good faith, which could collapse the whole sanctions regime internationally. This is not U.S.-Iran negotiating; this is the P5+1, and we must keep that in due regard.

Congress has an important role to play in this agreement with Iran repealing statutory sanctions. The deal cannot be implemented without congressional action. There is no reason for us to act right now. The only thing that acting now will achieve is to undermine the chance of an agreement.

Now, I believe Congress must have oversight, but I don't believe we should make this deal stillborn in the crib before it is even allowed to emerge. We don't want to abort the deal before it is born.

The deal should be allowed to come forward and the President should be allowed to make peace with a hostile nation before we start talking about what is wrong with it. We are anticipating what is wrong with it, and I don't think that is a helpful thing.

We are certainly not under any illusions about human rights, about exporting conflict from Iran. We know these things are the case.

What do you do when you want to deescalate the prospect of war? You negotiate. That is what the President is doing.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. ELLISON. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

In closing, I want to thank the ranking member and the chairman for this considered debate. I will say that I do believe that this is a big deal. It is important that we debate this. I respect the position that I have heard here today, but ultimately I don't think what we are doing is necessary, and I don't believe it will help enhance peace for the United States or the world.

I think the things that we need are already in place, which is our right to have hearings on anything we want, the role we will have to play to remove any sanctions if we are satisfied, and the fact that we don't have to if we are not. We have the cards. We do not have to choke this deal in the crib, which is what I think this particular bill threatens.

Now, let me say there is nothing new, Madam Speaker, about what the President is doing here. I have a list of examples that very closely correlate to the President's effort to negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran: the Helsinki Act in 1975, the Nuclear Suppliers Group in 1975, and the Australia Group in 1985. I don't have time to go into what all these things are, but I can say there are a number of situations where Presidents, Republican and Democrat, have used their authority to negotiate agreements with other countries in which Congress did not have to try to intervene.

Let me also point out that this situation that we are in, where we have had the framework agreement and now we are hoping to get a full agreement, I am hopeful and optimistic it will be something that is good and meaningful. So far, so good, in my opinion.

But I just want to remind everybody that the framework deal that has been struck already between the P5+1 in Iran would destroy about 14,000 centrifuges. That is what we are talking about here. Iran would destroy 97 percent of its uranium. That is 97 percent. Iran will have zero military nuclear capability.

We are at a historic moment that one keeps Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and we need to support this effort. I intend to vote ``no,'' and I yield back the balance of my time.

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