Ed Royce

Mr. ROYCE

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. As I have made clear before, I have serious reservations about the direction of our negotiations with Iran, and this is based in no small part on its treatment of the four Americans we are speaking about today and what that predicts going forward. Let's not forget, this is a regime--and we can turn on the set and watch their rallies--where regularly the chant ``death to America'' is used to rouse the most fervent supporters of the Supreme Leader. This is a regime that has killed its own citizens outright or convicted and imprisoned them based on confessions obtained by torture. This is a regime that takes U.S. citizens into captivity, tortures them, and then denies them medical treatment, denies them basic legal representation, denies them due process. Last month, just prior to Jason's so-called trial, Washington Post editor Martin Baron issued a compelling statement, and I will read part of it: ``It's worth recalling what kind of system we're dealing with. Jason was arrested without charges. He was imprisoned in Iran's worst prison. He was placed in isolation for many months and denied medical care he needed. His case was assigned to a judge internationally notorious for human rights violations. He could not select the lawyer of his choosing. He was given only an hour and a half to meet with a lawyer approved by the court. No evidence has ever been produced by prosecutors or the court to support these absurd charges. The trial date was only disclosed to Jason's lawyer last week. And now, unsurprisingly but unforgivably, it turns out the trial will be closed.'' Mr. Speaker, we cannot allow ourselves to lose sight of these facts. Faced with this, those making the case that Iran will be transparent with the international community on inspections that will be part of any nuclear deal seem to be thinking about the Iran they want, not the one in actuality, the one that is brutalizing Americans. Nuclear deal or not, these Americans deserve to be back with their families today. I urge all Members to support this resolution. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. ROYCE

Mr. ROYCE. I thank the gentleman. Congratulations here to Chairman Shuster and Ranking Member DeFazio for getting this important bill to the floor today. We are certainly proud to support our men and women serving in the United States Coast Guard. They play such a critical role there through rescue and saving lives and the role that they play also in drug interdiction and in protecting our territorial waters. I would also like to recognize the cooperative way in which Chairman Hunter has worked to address concerns about how this bill would impact an important lifesaving program under the jurisdiction of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and that is the Food for Peace program. Over the past several years, the effort to reform the Food for Peace program so that we can feed more people in crisis overseas in less time for less money has been portrayed as a zero-sum game between the intended beneficiaries of our generosity and the U.S. merchant marine. That is unfortunate because that is wrong. What is clear, though, is that we need to fix this problem in the sense that, after Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines in 2013, U.S. purchase and shipping requirements delayed deliveries of U.S. food for 3 weeks. Now, fortunately, with the Food for Peace program, those needs were met. But now in Nepal, it would take 45 days to get U.S. food in country even though food has been pre-positioned in nearby Sri Lanka. So that is why this element of the Food for Peace program is so important. If we had to wait 45 days to respond to every humanitarian disaster, some people would perish. Certainly many would be on the verge of starvation over that 45-day period. I am, therefore, pleased to see that this year the Coast Guard authorization bill does not raise cargo preference requirements from 50 percent to 75, and further, the bill's cargo preference enforcement provisions maintain important consultation and public comment requirements. At the same time, the recently passed national defense authorization bill will accelerate support for the existing Maritime Security Program. I appreciate Chairman Hunter's work to ensure that U.S. maritime security needs are fulfilled through a national defense mechanism rather than relying upon food aid cargos. Mr. Speaker, preserving U.S. maritime security is essential, but it need not come at the expense of food aid. I look forward to continuing to work with Chairman Hunter and Ranking Member Garamendi on creative solutions that enable us to preserve U.S. maritime security while making Food for Peace more effective, more efficient, and most importantly, getting it there on time for those that are in need after a disaster.

Mr. ROYCE

Mr. ROYCE. I thank the chairman for yielding. So I just want to say this: Nigeria and its neighbors--Chad, Niger, Cameroon--have been making headway in the fight against Boko Haram. They have cleared a number of northern Nigerian towns. Now we have an opportunity with the African Union force--but it lacks equipment; it lacks capacity--for a protracted fight there. This amendment expresses support for robust security assistance, training, equipment, the capacity building they need so that the African troops that are fighting against Boko Haram can continue to advance on the field. The amendment also requires the Department of Defense and the State Department to produce a report to make sure the Congress is fully aware of the nature of the assistance being provided. We need to support Nigeria and the African Union authorized force with all appropriate means. It is the best chance we have to eliminate Boko Haram, to eliminate this terror so that other young girls are not snatched and their lives destroyed. The region's stability, by the way, depends upon it.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Chairman, I very much appreciate Chairman Thornberry and the Armed Services Committee for working collaboratively on this important amendment. In speaking on behalf of this Royce-Maloney amendment, I want to recognize the leadership of Representative Carolyn B. Maloney of New York, who has been dedicated in the fight against Boko Haram and dedicated in terms of trying to raise awareness on this. Many have seen on television the continued kidnappings of Boko Haram, the pillaging of villages, the taking of women and children as captives. I just want to tell you the story that we heard last year in our committee from one young girl, a survivor from Chibok, that touched the hearts of, I think, many people there that day. She gave this brave narration of what happened when Boko Haram broke in and, before her very eyes, killed her father and killed her 14-year- old brother. She is one of the few from her village who survived.

Mr. ROYCE

Mr. ROYCE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, I rise in very strong support of this measure, and I want to especially thank the gentleman from North Carolina, Mr. Mark Meadows, along with Mr. Ted Deutch of Florida and Ranking Member Eliot Engel of New York for their bipartisan leadership on this critically important issue. Last July, the House passed legislation by a vote of 404-0. This was the bill that was passed by that measure, with a few tweaks, but 404-0. Unfortunately, the other body, the Senate, failed to take it up. The threat posed by Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies has only expanded since then, and now, Hezbollah is ascendant in the region. Consider, now, Hezbollah's arsenal aimed at Israel; that arsenal has exploded. I was in Haifa in 2006 as Hezbollah's rockets rained down on that city, targeting civilian neighborhoods. Those Iranian and Syrian- made rockets were slamming into people's homes, and they were being targeted, and the hospital also was being targeted. Every rocket contained 90,000 ball bearings. The only intent was mass killing and maiming. In the Rambam trauma hospital, I talked to many of the victims. There were 600 victims of these rockets in there, and that was nearly 10 years ago. At that time, Hezbollah started that effort with about 15,000 rockets at their disposal, and they fired close to 5,000 at civilian targets. That was their work. Hezbollah has expanded its arsenal in size and in sophistication. By the way, it has been done at the behest of Iran. They have given these new rockets, with longer range, to Hezbollah. Now, they have an arsenal; the estimate is some 100,000 unguided rockets. It has also expanded its arsenal to include the sophisticated antiship and antiaircraft missiles and ground-to-ground rockets. Hezbollah has been able to expand both its arsenal and activities, with Iranian backing, and its long-established worldwide network of members and supporters and sympathizers to provide this terrorist group financial and logistical and military and other types of support. To cut the international support and reach of Hezbollah, to deny it the funds needed for its terrorist activities, we must effectively target its financial network. That is the goal of the Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Act of 2015. This bill builds on the existing sanctions regime by placing Hezbollah's sources of financing under additional scrutiny, particularly those resources outside of Lebanon, given that many Lebanese banks have stepped up their game to prevent money laundering. In addition to targeting the terrorist organization's diverse financial networks, the legislation also requires the U.S. Government to focus on Hezbollah's global logistics network and its transnational organized criminal enterprises, including its vast drug smuggling operations. The goal is to improve coordination and cooperation with allies and other responsible countries in confronting the increasing threat posed by Hezbollah, and I strongly urge my colleagues to support this critical measure. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROYCE. Madam Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Meadows), a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations. He is also the author of the prior year's legislation on this subject which passed with 404 votes, and he is a principal coauthor, along with Mr. Ted Deutch, of this bill which we are bringing up today.

Mr. ROYCE. I yield myself such time as I may consume, Madam Speaker. When we think about Hezbollah, we think about an organization that was once a limited regional threat. Today, it really is global. It is an organization conducting terrorist and criminal activities all over the world, one that has actively targeted the United States now, if we think about it, for 30 years. I think it shows no signs of letting up as Iran, the regime there, shows no signs in letting up in its support for Hezbollah. So prior to the attacks of September 11, Iran's proxy was responsible for the largest number of American deaths by terrorist organizations up until that point when al Qaeda carried out that attack. This included the 1993 bombing of the United States Embassy in Beirut and the bombing of our United States Marine Corps barracks again that same year. Hezbollah was responsible for providing funding and weapons to Iraqi militias that killed hundreds of Americans in Iraq at the behest of Iran. Hezbollah is behind the Iranian-sponsored slaughter that is going on right now in Syria, and it is Hezbollah that is now not only on the northern border of Israel, but also, with the support from Iran, it is now up on the Golan Heights. It is now up just off the Golan Heights in Syria there. Hezbollah is now involved in supporting the Iranian-supported Houthi takeover in Yemen. Hezbollah is a model; and as you heard the debate recently on the Internet, should the Hezbollah model be replicated not only among the Shia Houthi but in other parts of the region, we must remember that any sanctions relief that we provide to Iran for a nuclear agreement will have an impact on Iran's ability to further support Hezbollah and the ability of that organization to carry out future attacks on Americans, on our allies, or on other unfortunate souls who oppose an Iranian takeover of that region. Yet Hezbollah and their sponsor remain vulnerable. They are still reliant on Iran's largesse and on proceeds from Hezbollah's illicit activities. It is precisely those illicit activities, those vulnerabilities, that we must target. So, Madam Speaker, passing the Iran and the Hezbollah bills today will be a one-two punch against terrorists backing Iran's nuclear weapons drive. Madam Speaker, I urge all of the Members to support this measure. Again, I thank Mr. Eliot Engel for his work and the other cosponsors of the bill as well. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ROYCE. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. ROYCE. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include any extraneous material they might wish for the Record.

Mr. ROYCE. I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Dold), a member of the Committee on Financial Services, a cosponsor of the bill, and someone who has been relentless in warning about the threat of Iran and Hezbollah.

Mr. ROYCE. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Zeldin), a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, one of the principal cosponsors of this bill, and a leader in confronting Iran in its support for terrorism around the world.

Mr. ROYCE. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen), the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa.

Mr. ROYCE. Madam Speaker, I yield the gentleman an additional 1 minute.

Mr. ROYCE. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2297) to prevent Hezbollah and associated entities from gaining access to international financial and other institutions, and for other purposes.

Mr. ROYCE

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Chair, I rise in support of this amendment. I have already expressed my deep concern for the rushed, almost frenzied manner in which the administration is emptying the detention center at Guantanamo Bay. We saw the dangerous Taliban Five transfer. Just this past December, the administration released six Guantanamo Bay detainees to the small South American country of Uruguay. These six detainees had been trained in munitions and document forgery. In quiet negotiations with Uruguay to take the six, the Obama administration offered the President of Uruguay written assurances that none of them had ever been involved in conducting or facilitating terrorist activities, throwing out with a stroke of a pen the intelligence and analysis that had led to their detention. These six former terrorists and Guantanamo Bay detainees live only six blocks away from the U.S. Embassy, which has forced the Embassy to heighten its security posture. The Obama administration has effectively prioritized its political goal of closing Guantanamo over our national security interests. The administration's desperation to empty Guantanamo has caused six hardened terrorists to land dangerously close to an embassy in our hemisphere.

Mr. ROYCE

Mr. ROYCE. I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROYCE. That is correct, Mr. Sherman. I see no way that a failure to override a Presidential veto or otherwise enact a joint resolution of disapproval would be construed as Congress approving a bad Iran deal. It would be that the Congress didn't have a supermajority of votes to stop the President from exercising the considerable leeway he has for the sanctions that are in place. I would also remind the gentleman that this bill gives us the chance to have that vote. Otherwise, the President could act to waive sanctions the day after a deal is struck. And if people are really worried about congressional intent being misconstrued, we always have the ability to make our intent crystal clear by passing a resolution or concurrent resolution, which are not subject to Presidential presentment or veto.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Dold), a member of the Committee on Financial Services.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, 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 myself such time as I might consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this legislation to ensure that Congress is positioned to effectively and decisively judge and to constrain President Obama's nuclear deal with Iran should a bad deal be struck. I commend Chairman Corker and Ranking Member Cardin for bringing this measure before their body. This bill received near unanimous support in the other body. I appreciate, as always, Ranking Member Engel's cooperation in bringing this to the floor. With today's vote, this legislation will go to the President for his signature. The Foreign Affairs Committee has held a series of hearings on the administration's nuclear negotiations with Iran, a radical state sponsor of terrorism, which is creating turmoil in a strategically vital region. It is fair to say that there are deep, bipartisan concerns about where these negotiations are heading. I fear that the agreement that is coming will be too short, sanctions relief will be too rapid, inspectors will be too restricted, and Iran's missile program will be plain ignored. Of course, we all hope that Iran's march toward a nuclear weapon can be diplomatically stopped. This legislation should strengthen the administration's hand at the negotiating table. But Secretary Kerry must put its added leverage to use immediately so that the U.S. can gain much-needed ground in the negotiations over the next 2 months. Mr. Speaker, much of the pressure that brought the Islamic Republic of Iran to the negotiating table was put in place by Congress over the objections of the White House and over the objections of both Republican and Democratic Presidents, and this is unfortunate. We would have had more pressure on Iran today if the Obama administration hadn't pressured the Senate to sit on the Royce-Engel sanctions bill that the Foreign Affairs Committee produced and that this House passed by a margin of 400-20. Let's be clear. The administration has come around to support the legislation we are debating here today, but not with any enthusiasm. Having followed these negotiations since they began in November of 2013, I can tell you that the President would like nothing more than to have no such bill, to have Congress sit on the sideline and watch him negotiate an agreement, whether good or bad, and I fear bad. Today, without this legislation in place, what is Congress' position if the President reaches a deal with Iran? Currently, there is no limitation on the President's use of waivers to suspend the sanctions Congress put in place, no requirement that Congress receive full details of any agreement with Iran, no review period for Congress to examine and weigh in on the agreement, no requirement that the President certify that Iran is complying, and no way for Congress to rapidly reimpose sanctions should Iran cheat. Today, the President can sign a bad deal, and we, the United States Congress, are left to read about it in the paper. But with the passage of this bill, all that changes. Sanctions relief is frozen until Congress receives the agreement and then holds a referendum on its merits. Again, I believe that this gives the administration a better chance to get to a lasting and meaningful agreement. Consider the outstanding and critical issue of verification. The ink wasn't even dry on the framework announcement and the chants of ``death to America'' led by the Supreme Leader were still fresh when the leader asserted--when the Ayatollah asserted--that Iran wouldn't allow international inspectors access to its military facilities. The deputy head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps seconded that. He said: ``They will not even be permitted to inspect the most normal military site in their dreams.'' When it comes to negotiating this inspections regime over the next 2 months, U.S. negotiators must know that these critical issues will determine Congress' assessment of any final deal. Once this legislation is signed, when Secretary Kerry sits across from the Iranians, he will now have on his mind: I have got to take this to Congress. Mr. Speaker, that prospect can only improve these negotiations. I just hope it is not too late and that we aren't too deep into a bad deal. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members of this body have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include any extraneous materials on this measure.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 10 minutes of my time to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Engel), my ranking member, and ask unanimous consent that he be allowed to control that time.

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