Ed Royce

Mr. ROYCE

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Loudermilk).

Mr. ROYCE. I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Yoho).

Mr. ROYCE. I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Emmer).

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 2 minutes. Mr. Speaker, some of us have seen this before. Some of us were around for the North Korean nuclear agreement, and President Obama's Iran nuclear deal looks increasingly like the dangerous deal that we struck with that regime in North Korea. In 1994, the U.S. Government signed a deal with North Korea that, according to then-President Clinton, would make the United States, the Korean peninsula, and the world safer, in his words. The agreement, we were told, did not rely on trust, but would instead involve a verification program which would stop the North Koreans from ever acquiring a nuclear bomb. That sounds familiar today. Unfortunately, the North Korean deal had holes that you could fire a ballistic missile through. The deal did not dismantle North Korea's program. It committed the United States to rewarding North Korea with large quantities of fuel oil without requiring the regime to implement the terms. Worst of all, the deal relied on inspection provisions that were naive and ultimately were worthless. The predictable result was that, on October 4, 2002, North Korea revealed it had been lying all along and that it had continued to secretly develop nuclear weapons. Four years later, North Korea's dictator, Kim Jong Il, ordered an underground nuclear test, and today, North Korea is a global menace, and it supports and sponsors terrorism, and it is the most unstable nuclear power on Earth. There is a reason why some of us raise these issues. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Rouzer).

Mr. ROYCE. I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn).

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Shimkus). (Mr. SHIMKUS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Diaz-Balart), a member of the Committee on Appropriations and the Committee on the Budget.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Sam Johnson), a true American hero who served this country with distinction in Korea and in Vietnam and as a prisoner of war for nearly 7 years.

Mr. ROYCE. I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Zeldin), a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. McHenry), the deputy chief whip and a member of the Financial Services Committee.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Perry), a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Shuster), the chairman of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

Mr. ROYCE. I yield another 30 seconds to the gentleman.

Mr. ROYCE. I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Donovan), a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Pittenger), a member of the Committee on Financial Services.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Guthrie), a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee and the Education and the Workforce Committee.

Mr. ROYCE. I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Latta).

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 2 minutes. There was a credible alternative. There was a credible alternative that this body passed by a vote of 400-20, bipartisan legislation which the administration blocked in the Senate, legislation which would have put that additional pressure on the regime in Iran. Knowing that the United States is the 800-pound gorilla, knowing that countries do not have the option and companies around the world do not have the option of making a choice when they have to make that choice between doing business with the United States or doing business with Iran, they have to do business with the United States. We have put that bill into the Senate. The administration blocked it. That legislation would have ensured the type of pressure on Iran that would have forced the Ayatollah to make a choice between real compromise--real compromise--on his plan to construct a weapon or economic collapse for that regime. We would have had that leverage in this negotiation. That leverage was given up by this administration by blocking that bill in the Senate in the last Congress. And, frankly, that option is still available to us. I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Chabot).

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Lance).

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen), who chairs the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa and was the author of some of the Iran sanctions laws that are in force today.

Mr. ROYCE. I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), chairman of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe), chairman of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade.

Mr. ROYCE

Mr. ROYCE. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, several Members spoke of Iran's commitments under this agreement. While it is true that Iran has committed to taking certain steps under the agreement, it is also true that Iranians have never complied with any agreement related to its weapons program. So let's start with considering what Iran's leaders have been saying today about this agreement. This is what they say. They say that Iran can pursue the development of missiles without any restrictions. How can that be, given what is in this agreement? Well, President Rouhani--the supposed moderate here--has argued repeatedly that the only restrictions on Iran's missile developments are in the U.N. Security Council resolution. Endorsing the deal, he says, it is not in the agreement itself. They don't recognize the Security Council resolution. So he says: We are not restricted by this agreement. So what the gentleman is quoting, they say they are not restricted by that. Mr. Speaker, Iranian leaders say that Iran can violate the U.N. Security Council resolutions without violating the agreement. Sanctions do not, therefore, snap back if Iran violates the U.N. Security Council resolutions, according to Iran, and that Iran intends to violate the U.N. Security Council restrictions on weapons sales and on imports. This is President Rouhani again: We will sell and buy weapons whenever and wherever we deem it necessary. We will not wait for permission from anyone or any resolution. So Iran's defense minister has said that Iran is negotiating right now to purchase Russian fighter jets. We know they are negotiating in terms of ballistic missiles right now. They are in violation of the agreement, yet we don't see any intention to enforce that. So we have got to ask ourselves: Just what kind of agreement is this? Who is this agreement with? As the committee heard yesterday, it is an agreement with a regime whose world view was founded in large part on a fiery theological anti- Americanism and a view of Americanism as Satanism. I don't have to tell the Members here. I mean, they hear it every week, those of you that are watching what is coming out of Iran ``death to America'' every week. Mr. Speaker, this agreement gives up too much too fast with not enough in return, and we have to judge it on the long-term national security interests of the United States. Does it make the region and the world more safe, secure, stable? In my mind, clearly it does not. So I don't feel this is worthy of the House's support. I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Sanford).

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. McCaul), chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security and a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hensarling), chairman of the Committee on Financial Services.