the committee will come to order before we begin i want to take a couple of moments to acknowledge the departure of two very key staffers for the committee david abramowitz our chief counsel and krist wells are deputy chief counsel david's been on the committee since one thousand nine hundred ninety and prior to that he served for a decade in the state department's office of the legal advisor kristen has been with the committee since two thousand seven previously served with the committee on judiciary beginning in two thousand and one david and kristen have been major contributions to the committee's legislative agenda and to our nation's foreign policy both played key roles in the committee's recent passage of a state department authorization bill david's role while in the minority as well in the as in the majority working on such issues as the trafficking victims protection act the m challenge assistance program and pepfar are well known to many of us i think it's fair to say that david has been instrumental in everything this committee has done his work has resulted in improving the lives of millions of recipients of u s assistance programs including trafficking victims we will miss him greatly but not for long because he will likely be back in his new capacity working for humanity united and anti trafficking organization kristen to has been a major force in the committee working on behalf of the innocent and disadvantage she too was instrumental in the wilberforce trafficking the authorization act of two thousand and seven the united states caribbean educational exchange act legislature pertaining to iraqi refugees the international violence against women act and she's played a key role up to today late last night  which today is their last day and working with mr smith's staff a bipartisan basis to further protections of the innocent she put global women's issues front and center for this committee her contributions will be long remembered so i thank you both of you for your service and good luck as i mentioned they're going on to new professional challenges david to humanity united a foundation which is dedicated to ending modern day slavery and mass atrocities christine will be a partner in patton boggs where she will be a key figure in their whitening practice and their whitening practice  the way you sort of can tell the value really realize the value the incredible staff that we all have working for us is when they come and tell you leaving and you can gauge how depressed you get when you hear that and now pursuant to notice i will call up h r twenty one ninety four the iran petroleum refined the iranian refined petroleum sanctions act without objection the a member of the nature of a substitute before the members will be considered as base text for purposes of amendment will be considered as read and will be open for amendment at any time a summary of the amendment of the nature of a substitute is on each member's desk in a moment i will yield myself five minutes to explain the bill and and then the five minutes to the ranking member to allow or to provide her views on the legislation if a member wishes to make a general statement on the bill they may do so by asking to strike the last word once the bill is being considered for amendment without objection i may recess the committee from time to time and addition i may exercise the chairs brocket under rule for the committee rules to postpone votes for the convenience of the members i will give members as much notice as i can when such postponed votes will occur without objection i recognize myself for five minutes in marking up h r twenty one ninety four i have one transcend goal in mind to maximize the chances that iran the leading state sponsor of terrorism will be prevented from acquiring the capacity to uproot produce nuclear arms that capacity would pose perhaps the most serious strategic threat to our nation why for reasons first a nuclear armed iran would be able to bully its neighbors and dominate its region and would be much less susceptible to pressure from the international community secondly its terrorist proteges like hezbollah and hamas would be emboldened third it would likely spark a nuclear arms race in the middle east and the persian gulf that would lead to the collapse of the global nuclear nonproliferation regime and finally and very importantly we could never be sure that it wouldn't share its nuclear know how with others including terrorists or possibly even use nuclear weapons against israel or other u s allies in the region this legislation seeks to target iran's ongoing dependence on refined petroleum imports is not a magic bullet but it will at least force the iranians to think twice about continuing to flout the will of the internet community unlike previous iran sanctions legislation which has been ignored by every administration this bill requires the ministration to report to congress all activities that would trigger sanctions and three hundred thirty members of the house including the overwhelming majority of this committee are co sponsors of this bill when i introduced r twenty one ninety four six months ago i said that i did not want to mark it up right away because i wanted to give diplomacy a chance to succeed and i still do in recent weeks there's been a potential development on the diplomatic front as the u s as partners and iran have discussed the prospect that iran would ship seventy five percent of its existing stockpile of low enriched uranium outside the country to be further enrich for use in making medical isotopes if this deal is realized as agreed to in principle not with significant modifications and assuming that iran has no covert stockpile of low enriched uranium we will of push back iran's nuclear clock perhaps nine months to a year and marking up this bill today we must recognize that whatever the progress on that recent arrangement it does not address the international community's central concern suspension of iran's uranium enrichment program iran is still refusing to suspend enrichment as demanded in four separate united nations security council resolutions and is us far not even committed to engage on that in the recent round of talks in fact as we know now iran has been seeking to covertly expand its uranium enrichment program the iranian government should know that the s congress remains intently focused on this issue and that there will be consequences if it continues to stonewall that is why after six months of waiting it is time to move b n moving this bill through the legislative process i am not giving up on the possibility that diplomacy will succeed in bringing about a suspension of iran's uranium enriched richmond program but if diplomacy does not produce the desired results within a very short period of time there should be a robust sanctions regime regime imposed by the u n security council or failing that by a coalition of economically powerful like minded states that one hopes would include the united  states nations japan and several of the key oil producing arab states only when we judge that these other options will not succeed in a timely manner should we turn to additional unilateral extra territorial sanctions such as those included in h r twenty one ninety four as i said in my statement two weeks ago announcing this markup by approving the iran refined petroleum sanctions act this committee will take the first step to ensure that president obama is empowered with the full range of tools he needs to address the looming nuclear threat from iraq even as he pursues diplomacy and if necessary the multilateral sanctions track given the length of time in order and takes the house and senate to move a significant piece of legislation to the president's desk it's important we initiate this process today all of us are aware that if the provisions of this bill are ever implemented they would likely have a significant impact on the iranian economy including quite possibly on average iranians while this is a distasteful i grant myself i give myself i ask for unanimous consent to have two additional the urgency of dealing with the iranian nuclear project and the immense danger that a nuclear armed iran would if not hundreds of millions of people who will fall within the range of it compels us to go forward with this legislation implementation prove necessary it would be our hope aronian regime would come to its senses and suspended some richmond program at the earliest possible time iranians should understand that americans while distressed by the actions of the iranian regime have feelings of real friendship for the iranian people themselves and we believe most iranians reciprocate those feelings many of us regret the developments in recent decades have created impediments to our mutual friendship we look forward to a day when the us iranian friendship can blossom anew when a government in tehran is willing to restore tehran is willing to restore iran to membership in good standing among the community of nations for e but sanctions usually take time given the advance even of the overt iranian nuclear program given iran's achievements in missile development and given persistent reports that iran has made iran has poured massive resources into its nuclear weapons program and has made great strides in its development of ballistic missiles and other advanced conventional weapons its support for militant islamic extremists greatly expanded as well and it has adopted increasingly aggressive policies toward other countries in the region by sanctioning foreign companies that invested in iran's energy infrastructure sought to call it off investment in iran struggling petroleum sector economic lifeline as a result of iran's petroleum sector has been denied critical foreign investment the days legislation the iran refined petroleum sanctions act  to ratchet up the pressure on the regime by targeting a new vulnerability namely aranesp inability to produce sufficient gasoline and other refined petroleum products the bipartisan bill  as you have stated mr chairman already has three hundred thirty co sponsors there's no question that it will be adopted overwhelmingly when it is sent to the floor which i hope will be soon nature of the substitute which we are considering today contains a number of important changes to the introduced bill and i'll highlight just a few a requirement that investigations into possible violations of the iran sanctions act be concluded within one hundred  eighty eight one hundred eighty days and expansion of sanctions beyond the maritime shipment of petroleum products to iran to also include truck and rail shipping on new nuclear cooperation agreements with governments that do not take effective action against those underage jurisdiction who provide a ram with materials and technology used in its nuclear weapons program and additional reporting requirements regarding the rainy and revolutionary guard corps activity by raney and diplomats fozzy official entities and proxies such as hezbollah in the middle east western hemisphere africa and beyond and also trade between iran and the g twenty nations an additional sense of congress regarding newly discovered nuclear facilities as well as additional statements of policy such as calling on the secretary of state to make every effort to assist the american hostages taken when iranian militants seized our embassy in one nine hundred seventy nine and their survivors in achieving full compensation for their injuries these and other additions greatly strengthen the bill's effectiveness major opportunities have been thrown away because successive administrations refused to use the many powerful tools that congress has given to them or did so only ha parted it is my expectation that we will work in a bipartisan manner to ensure that congressional mandate and intense are no longer ignored by the executive further hope that the current administration as with its predecessor in the second term does not allow itself to be manipulated by iran into an indefinite holding pattern to delay and extract greater concessions while the clock on their breakout capacity continues to tick i used the reference at last week's burma hearing with respect to the proposed new approach to that regime that unfortunately also fits perfectly when discussing dealings with the iranian regime and that in that direction will continue its march toward acquiring nuclear weapons dominating the persian gulf and expanding its network of radical militants around the world we still have time to act but we must  and i mean both our allies and others need to know that the u s congress is dead serious about sanctions to diplomacy fail to resolve the real concerns about iran's nuclear program but those who worry that sanctions may lead to conflict i would suggest that the opposite is true with iranian political ration on the horizon what is backless is reckless if you don't want war it seems to me that you must back the toughest possible sanctions but sanctions alone almost certainly are not going to be sufficient to force the iranian regime to change course the violence throughout iran in june following the rigged presidential election as well as the sub subsequent escalation of political repression have demonstrated iran's rulers are ready to do whatever it takes to preserve their grip on power and given the ten years of sanctions followed by the war against saddam's iraq and what hasn't happened to a nuclear north korea i suspect iran doug ocracy sees nuclear arms as their ultimate insurance policy so even as we proceed as we must on enhancing our capacity for unilateral sanctions and even as we continue as we must on developing crippling multi lateral sanctions that can be applied if diplomacy proves to be ineffectual we should bear in mind that there may not be any level of sanctions sufficient enough to compel a change in iran nuclear program i would suggest that we need a strategy more comprehensive than just diplomatic engagement followed by sanctions president obama supports a direct iran has already helped to heal a variety of political woes but by itself diplomatic engagement still leaves too much initiative in iranian hands likewise with political and economic sanctions if the iranians remain recalcitrant and sanctions are applied no matter how crippling and i'd want them to be absolutely suffocating of the regime is still left to the ayatollahs to decide when they've had enough after the moaning the insufficiency of our leverage over iran why have we chosen to ignore iran's green movement which so clearly has the ayatollah is absolutely terrified iran is sowing chaos and tera throughout the middle east where is the truman like policy of declaring us ready nation trying to remain free from iranian threats we do need to pursue again and we do need to have sanctions ready in case it fails but we also need a policy that supports the democratic movement within iran that strengthens our abilities to resist iranian subversion that enhances our political and military coordination within the persian gulf that makes clear to all nations the political support for iran will come at a price in their relations to the united states if we don't come up with a comprehensive policy one that applies pressure to iran across the board i suspect president obama is soon going to have to decide whether an iranian nuclear weapons is truly unacceptable in the full meaning of the word and with full knowledge of what that really means th time of the gentleman has expired and the gentleman from indiana mr burton and what purpose do you see correct strike the last word which gentleman is recognized for five minutes first of all mr chairman i'm very happy we're finally adding to this this legislation you time well ok i'll yield to you for an answer then do we have any assurance that the other committees of jurisdiction are going to work with us to bring this bill to the floor expeditious what i'm not going to lead to i will do i will do everything in my power to make sure that the timing of this bill is not negatively affected by the sequence show referrals to the three committees that that come from this legislation that way and i'm not i'm not going to use the sequential referral process as a as if the other committees of jurisdiction drag their heels we could be messing around with this for another six months or longer i don't trust iran you know and i think one hundred thirty nine lord chamberlain and i went to munich to talk to hitler and he got assurances that hitler wasn't going to do anything to expand his aggressive moves and yet short time after that we were in the middle of world war two that killed what fifty or sixty million people were in the nuclear age right now we can't drag our feet and more currently the clinton administration trust and worked with and got some concessions out of north korea which were thrown right down the the receptacle we find in our bathrooms and they went right ahead with their nuclear program and so let me just say mr chairman i think it's essential that this congress move and move as rapidly as possible and try to get our allies to move as rapidly as possible to put these sanctions on them  i don't believe that they're going to stop their nuclear program we have heard time and again that one of their major goals is to destroy israel to wipe it off the face of the earth and they likewise call us the great satan i haven't heard anything in their rhetoric that would change that and now they're saying well that there they're thinking about a geneva they said that the they would just are trying to work out something so they could send part of their nuclear material back to russia seventy five percent of what is they shouldn't have any of that nuclear material and right now as we were as we speak today the centrifuges are still spinning they're working today to develop a nuclear weapons capability and their  missile capability as well and the longer we wait the more we risk a major conflagration over there i know some of the leaders in israel and i know that their number one concern is protecting their country it's a very small country and could be almost annihilated with a couple of nuclear weapons and i truly believe the longer we drag our feet the more we risk a conflict over there that could kill an awful lot of innocent people both in iran and in israel and so i think we need to move as quickly as possible and i hope that you'll use all the power that you have as you just stated mr chairman to get this legislation through the other committees and get it to the floor so we can vote on it we get this thing passed and then start talking to our allies about working with us and  nations then and then i think we can start putting some real pressure on iran but right now solving this problem would just we're just not going to get the job done without it you know back about my time time of the gentleman has expired be complemented by immediate harsh and extra torrid extraterritorial sanctions and we need to get the administration to inforce the bills that have already become law especially the iran sanctions that we need to pass several additional sanctions through this congress then the sanctions can be frozen or waived when the centrifuges are frozen and then talks can continue in a more relaxed atmosphere that being said this is a good bill and i'm proud to co sponsor  it not comprehensive it is not intended to be comprehensive and i'm not going to offer amendments that are outside of the objectives of the author rather i hope that those other objectives are already   through this congress that would include making sure that u s subsidiaries don't do business with iran that is to say foreign incorporated subsidiaries of u firms a ban on iranian exports to the united states wouldn't even be ex territorial to say that we're going to stop imports from iran we don't import oil from iran we only import th stuff that we don't need and they couldn't sell anywhere else there are a number of other sanctions including those designed to prevent iran from getting mining and milling equipment i believe the ranking member and i are working on that and look forward to working on the other pieces of legislation finally i want to thank the chairman for including in this bill language that would target the iran's revolutionary guard corps that corps has operated through hundreds of fronts and affiliates it is time that we designate these entities under appropriate statutes and executive orders the amendment put forward by the chairman would require that the administration identify these fronts and affiliates  in reports required by the bill and calls on the president to say these entities as well as those who do business with them if you sell to the i r g c already of its fronts or affiliates you should not be selling to us i look forward to the passage of this important legislation commend the chairman for drafting it that time of the gentleman has expired and the gentleman from indiana purpose  the other gentleman from indiana there are more than one strike the last word has recognized for five minutes be here today appreciate the chairman and the ranking members leadership in bringing h r twenty one ninety four ministrations used to pressure iran where words have failed despite the fact that the prevailing diplomatic winds blow in the direction of diplomacy alone i believe with all my heart that diplomacy and sanctions are not mutually exclusive and the action that this committee will take today and i hope that this congress will take in the very near future in moving and enacting the iran refined petroleum sanctions act will greatly strengthened the position of the united states at the negotiation table with our allies relative to iran this past summer we saw that images of violent acts of the iranian regime was privilege for me to partner with you in bringing a bipartisan resolution to the floor of the congress that gave the american people an opportunity to speak in solidarity with the dissidents in iran and also to condemn the violence that took place there the reality was at that time around effectively declared war on its own people and we ought to ponder that as we think about the strength of this legislation and u s resolve if this is the level of violence that a re against its own citizens what does it tell us about the level of violence they would be willing to use against other nations around support for terrorism and pursuit of weapons of mass destruction of long threaten global peace and security to the iranian regime the united states is the great satan and our cherished ally israel has no right to exist last week iran missed a deadline to respond to a proposed agreement between iran and six world powers including the united states under the deal russian france would accept eighty percent of iran's known low enriched uranium process it for civilian purposes and then give it back to iran yesterday iran agreed to this general framework we're told but they said that it would seek quote important changes this announcement should be seen for what it further should come as no surprise iran has to see the world community time and time again and any assurance that their nuclear program is peaceful should be seen for what it is the revelation last month of iran's secret uranium enrichment facility  qualm has already shown taran iran's propensity tehran's propensity for double dealing world is left to wonder what other sites might be hiding thousands more centrifuges busily churning out highly enriched uranium and how long will be before they have enough for a bomb all reading the leading state sponsor of terror it would be only a matter of time before a nuclear armed iran made good on its threat the international community and i would argue this country has talked a long urge support for the strongest possible measures to be included in the iran refined petroleum sanctions act and again commend the chairman of this committee and the ranking member of this committee for their strong leadership in bringing this legislation want to associate myself with mr pence's remarks which i think of quite right and on the money so i thank you for making those remarks mr pence and i certainly agree with everything you've said and mr chairman i strongly support h sponsoring this thoughtful initiative as you know i was the author of the syria accountability act some years ago ms ross layton and i introduced that bill it slapped sanctions on syria for the first time ever and we have pursued diplomacy while we pursued sanctions so i think that is an important thing to remember only a few short weeks ago the world learned of a secret iranian nuclear enrichment facility near the city of god if there was ever any doubt that iran was trying to build nuclear weapons i believe that this revelation dispels any shred of a doubt the facility kept secret from the i a e a was built deep in a mountain on a protected military base this is how a country conceal nuclear weapons program not how it develops peaceful energy technologies as iran continues to disregard his legal obligations and flout the un security council resolutions demanding that a halt its nuclear enrichment program this committee can play a critical role in impeding it from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability by passing this iran refined petroleum sanctions act congress will create critical tools to increase the pressure on iran although iran is leading producer of crude oil it has limited refining capability this bill seeks to increase leverage against iran by sanctioning entities that export with fire and petroleum products to iran or support the development of iran's domestic refining capabilities it's my hope that the administration will apply these additional sanctions to make absolutely clear to the ahmadinejad regime that the world will not accept his nuclear ambitions  western hemisphere i would like to raise one additional concern which arose at my hearing yesterday on iran's role in the western hemisphere last month venezuelan leader hugo chavez agreed to provide twenty thousand barrels per day refined gasoline to iran it's anyone's guess as to whether this will ever be implemented but the deal may be covered by the bill we're considering today well some question whether venezuela has the ability to provide gasoline to iran tinted import some gasoline to meet its own domestic demand president chavez is clearly approaching a perilous era area i hope he reconsiders this unwise step and if he doesn't i hope the sanctions will apply in that regard of the united states our allies and the united nations security council have recognize that a nuclear armed iran would be a danger to the middle east and to the nuclear nonproliferation regime a nuclear armed iran is simply unacceptable and we must not stand for it while the rest of the world twiddles its arms this is obviously a very very important issue not only for us in the united states but for the people of israel and i think that the people of israel will make decisions on on how they act but i believe that we in the united states can make decisions to try to block iran so i therefore strongly support the iran refined petroleum sanctions act and i urge the committee to report this bill favorably and i yield back the balance of my time time of the gentleman myself with the remarks made by mr pence earlier in this hearing with that said i would hope that this act does not have a loophole that will permit the administration to turn a blind eye to china's significant involvement in iraq oil and gas industry it has been reported that china has already surpassed germany as iran's number one iran and in addition to that they made a deal of the century contract for a natural gas from around cement north chinese contractors are also busy constructing  terminals for iran in the caspian sea and this while china arms sales to iran has included such items as ballistic missile technology air defense radars cruise missiles and i might add one of those cruise missiles took out an israeli warship a couple of years ago i'd also point out that the jerusalem post earlier this year reported that many chinese grad rockets have been fired from this that if we are serious about countering the threat that iran poses to united states and to its neighbors we will do everything we can to stop the chinese communist party from playing the spoiler role not only with regard to orland gas but also military equipment which it provides iran which then ships it off to terrorist organizations we have to do this even if it means upsetting the communist party leadership in beijing and whether it also perhaps upsets america the american corporate elite lapdogs that send off to china all of our jobs in technology so while i support this legislation let's hope that we don't lose focus on the role that china is playing and hold them accountable as part of this legislation thank you mr  nuclear enrichment activity recent missile test of the revelation of a secret enrichment facility add the urgency add to the urgency of the situation now a new deal is on the table just last week the white house announced its official support for a proposed arrangement that would send most of iran's uranium outside of the country for enrichment time will tell whether iran supports the proposal the clock is ticking while iran may stall in accepting the deal a common measure as a ploy in the past it's time to consider measures that will strengthen the u s and its allies negotiating position or up the ante so to speak the real threat of additional sanctions can do just that the iranian re must be clear stop stalling and they go to the deal or there will be severe economic consequences i owe back what purpose is a gentleman from california mr chairman i move to recognize for five minutes well thank you mr chairman mr chairman i think you noted that this issue is long been under consideration and i think for those of us who have wrestled with this issue as you have one of the reasons it has been in abeyance for a while is because of that two thousand and seven national intelligence estimate which concluded that in the fall in the words the estimate in the fall of two thousand and three tehran halted its nuclear weapons program now several of us at the time as a poorly produced document poorly presented document and we were rather vocal in in trying to point out the likelihood that that assessment was dead wrong surely damage o international efforts to pressure iran and sense that as we've learned a lot about a north korean built nucular facility in syria which we apparently were blind to at the time  believe that that was likely linked to iran and one thing we do know in richmond facility on an iranian military base which is now come to our attention  washington post on saturday reported that undermined one of the u s intelligence communities of iran's nuclear program and that assessment was that iran had abandoned its plans to enrich uranium in secret we now know it's exactly the opposite of what we were told by the intelligence community and there is no doubt that we have lost valuable time in responding to this very thread and one of the reasons is because of that report and i hope i hope we learn something from it i'm also concerned by this administration's apparent walking away from the democratic movement in iraq other members have commented on this but i wonder if members realize that it is that the administration has now cut out grants to respected groups supporting democracy in iran we have had a bipartisan agreement for many years in this committee and this is under our purview our jurisdiction for support for those doing work for human rights in iraq and that part of our outreach to the iranian regime should be undermining that a regime treats its own people tells you a great deal about how it is likely to treat its neighbors and for those of us in america who watched the results of the  attacks by those the arm the militia or the regime on those who were protesting trying to get an honest and fair outcome of an election that had been stolen for those of us that learned about the bodies that disappeared in the later turned up dead the current protesters who have been who have been given sentences of death for participating in protesting a stolen election for those of us the know how iranian families grieve for family members that are yet to be accounted for they have no idea what is currently happening to those individuals think there is a great deal of concern for the cuts to these to these efforts to support human rights now there's no guarantee that a democrat iran would be nucular weapons but they'd be far more likely that in iran in the grip of the supreme council far more likely that we would have a regime that we could work with and and or at least that we didn't have to fear at least a regime that didn't tell us what the soviets once told us you know the soviet the soviet threat was that they were going to bury us well we took action to contain that threat and we listened to those dissidents in the soviet union who said you know supporting human rights over here is going to help change the system and it is equally important here because smart diplomacy doesn't mean dropping any criticism with the regimes human rights abuse and this is a critical issue i hope this committee will look at mr chairman thank you time of the gentleman has expired the gentleman from your mr mcmahon recognized for a motion to thank thank you and i move to strike the last word and i commend you for your leadership on advancing the iran refined petroleum sanctions act of two thousand and nine a historic bipartisan piece of legislation which limits investment in iran's hydrocarbon sector twenty one ninety four would sanction companies that help iran import or produce fine petroleum companies that ultimately endangered the security of the united states israel and the world as a whole already due to united states pressure now these forty banks including deutsche bank u b s credit suisse and commerce commerce bank have all reduced business with iran yet despite increased pressure iran refuses to suspend its uranium enrichment program in fact as we've heard this morning the revelation this past september that iran failed to disclose yet another enrichment facility in coleman points to the reason why we are all here today a nuclear armed iran is on except ball and is not consistent with this secure and safe united states and israel since iran imports forty percent of its refined petroleum this legislation will have a significant impact on iran's economy and will send a clear message that iran must stop its nuclear enrichment program i am confident that this long stalled measure will undoubtedly give the administration the leverage that it needs to negotiate negotiate with the regime but the united states will also need the full support of the international community to use limits on trade and the energy to help and iran has nuclear ambitions mr chairman i urge all members to vote for h r twenty one ninety four but i also urge all my colleagues to support the manager's amendment among many other positive changes the manager's amendment includes a provision that will require the president to report to congress on the dollar value amounts of trade including the energy sector between iran and each country maintaining membership in the group of twenty finance ministers and central bank governors i thank you chairman berman for working with me on this important provision have devoted much of my efforts on the committee to promoting transatlantic relations and nonproliferation efforts and there's no better way to engage with allies and foes alike than to promote a nuclear nonproliferation regime major european allies including the united kingdom france and germany have advocated that sanctions be significantly tough and this reporting requirement will allow the united states to compare the efforts taken by the g twenty members in the fight against nuclear proliferation and will ultimately further secure the united states israel and the global community through my provision the manager's amendment will enhance an already comprehensive piece of legislation that i've probably co sponsored again thank you m president's effort to reach a diplomatic agreement iran it's also important we send a clear signal that there will be a negative consequences for refusing to cooperate twenty one ninety four accomplish go about targeting one of the largest sectors of the iranian economy say that we're not going to tie the hands of the administration and perhaps we are today but we will later that will be the next step that tends to be the way we go with unilateral sanctions like this let me just raise the issue of cuba that's what we've done there and i would argue that years later years and years and a couple of decades after the main threat was gone there cuba's abil export revolution around the world when the soviets pulled out we have tied the administration's hands in a way that they can't affectively move our own administration to deal more effectively with the problems still there and there are problems and i hope that we can move cuba closer toward toward democracy but i would argue that the unilateral sanctions that we have there have diminished the prospects of an effective and to that problem and i fear that we will go down that road here as i mentioned i know that this package today does not tie the hands of the administration but my guess is that the next step that we will do the next step that we will take i hope that the administration is successful in their negotiations and in their talks and i think that we should wish them well there i do believe there is a case for multilateral sanctions i simply want that to happen and i question whether or not sometimes when we move too far ahead of our allies it makes it more difficult to pull them in and so i hope that we have a large multilateral iran to encourage the youth of iran who are demonstrating for human rights and democracy we need to act now i'm very grateful to be on the armed services committee and of course this month absolutely no need to build killer power capability underground but we have seen the pictures of the underground capabilities being developed i know that with made by ourselves but by leadership of iran that simply does not want to be part of the world family however i also support and recognize the importance by the  state department and our president and i support these efforts i believe in related to it but i thank you very much for recognizing that it is the people of iran that we must be concerned with it is a human rights it is important that we acknowledge that throughout two thousand and nine the government of iran has persistently violated the rights of its citizens the government of iran's most overt display of disregard for human rights happened in the presidential elections on june twelfth two thousand nine at that time i said we must condemn iran's with the absence of fair and free presidential elections in urging ran to violet's people with the opportunity to engage in a democratic election process their oppression and murder and arbitrary arrests show trials  peaceful dissidents in the wake of the elections or sad commentary on the desire of the iranian people to have democracy i am delighted that language that speaks to the need for improve human rights that i submitted has now been clued into this legislation it is important that we are clear that our concerns are with the government of iran and not its people the state department's human rights report on the ram provides a bleak picture of life in iran the government of iran's w denial of the democratic process and repression of the as prevented the people from determining their own future moreover it is a government of iran that persecuted ethnic minorities and denies the free expression of religion members of the committee should remember that the target government in consideration of this legislation the government of iran has repeatedly showed its disdain for the international community in repeatedly refusing cooperation on nonproliferation however we have noted over the last couple of weeks their doors have been open to those who are now assessing the status of their nuclear weapons or potential such some of those who are there giving oversight happens to be american so my view is this i want the president in the administration the secretary of state and other supporting agencies to have the full opportunity to engage i want this resolved i want the people of iran to have a democratic government i want them to be able to choose their democratic government if this legislation will provide an additional tool to move us along to give the iranian people what they have for four years and to free them to allow women young women young men families to live in a democratic society to give the iranian people what they would like to do which is to be part of the world family and i believe this is one too i would not like this to jump ahead of the engagement process and i would hope that we will be able to chairman in weeks to come to be provided with a report from the administration on what progress has been made otherwise however of eliminating the refined petroleum  freedom human rights democracy quality the right to sell should be in essence the right of the iranian people for that reason i will be supporting this legislation i yield back nuclear weapons capability as one who believes and has worked for nonproliferation efforts throughout my life everywhere in the world i am equally concerned about the prospect of iran acquiring nuclear weapons  though i believe we should do everything everything we can do to support the obama administration during this very critical juncture this includes providing the tools that the administration deems necessary to prevent iran from backsliding in the very important to go she ation processes that are taking place at this point at this time however we cannot restrict the administration's flexibility by mandating unilateral sanctions the strong bipartisan support on this committee and in congress for holding the iran accountable for its actions is a signal to iran that if they do not live up to their end of the bargain congress will act swiftly the prospect of iran acquiring nuclear weapons is unacceptable and so is the status quo however i am extremely concerned extremely concerned that moving this bill out of committee would undermine president room if those negotiations fail most importantly this bill makes a clear that there will be a price to pay for the development of nuclear weapons i hope that the iranian regime which to date you and the ranking member for offering this piece of legislation which i strongly support of co sponsor and i want to submit my full force they met for the record appreciate very much i yield back the balance of my time time of the gentleman has expired and the timing of this markup and asking for delaying consideration of this bill mr chairman you and i share the same goals of a non nuclear gentleman just without objection those letters will be including the record and make sure that we get copies of more than eight years of bellicose posturing and years of sanctions and thirty years without dialogue i may be open to a sanctions bill in the future but at this moment we need to give diplomacy a chance and so far president  obama's efforts have been working there is finally some progress in dealing with iran president obama's diplomacy has yielded an agreement that increases inspections and verification and reduces iran stockpiles of enriched uranium when iran met with right now the iranian government is weighing a proposal by the international atomic energy agency to send enrich uranium to russia to be turned into fuel diplomacy is an effective means of addressing our issues with iran we must not rush this process this is why the obama administration has not asked for additional sanctions at this time in fact in iran have not proven to be effective first iran has bypassed iran has been able to ward off some saying that anyone who supports his green revolution movement green movement should not should also oppose additional sanctions according to quote sanctions would not actually act against the government rather they would we are providing a lot of carrots i think the administration through diplomacy but this will provide the necessary towards moving forward with a nuclear free iran my concern is as we demonstrated the hearing yesterday on venezuela is that the day that this bill passes countries like venezuela and china will be immediately in violation of this act and the question before the congress and the present united states is supply petroleum products and we know that china is going to continue to do that as well and we know many other countries as well so i think that's a question we need to ask ourselves as we deliberate  refined petroleum sanctions act and have been working with you and other members of our leadership to move this bill as swiftly as possible in the congress i think the people of america firmly understand and certainly our allies that for years the government of iran has repeatedly dismissed international attempts to negotiate the country's nuclear program preventing the country from iran from developing nuclear weapons one of the most pressing challenges for the congress and for our allies president obama has rightly pursue diplomacy as my colleague mr allison spoke recently very eloquently on that however this legislation also provides the administration with the full range of tools needed to address the nuclear threat from iran and this comprehensive method includes sanctions furthermore we cannot allow companies to profit from investments made in a country that sponsors terrorism promotes religious intolerance has an abysmal human rights record and threaten the stability of the middle east by targeting these firms heavily limited the significant source of funding is essential deterring iran's pursuit of nuclear weapon this congress must continue to work to address the threat in a comprehensive way and i commend this committee for working to achieve this  committee today and i'm proud to be a co sponsor of the iran refined petroleum sanctions act of two thousand and nine as the administration pursues a diplomatic strategy strategy i firmly believe that congress must act simultaneously so that new and crippling sanctions are ready if negotiations fail at the same time we must persuade our allies to join us in these efforts to mar most effective when we work multilaterally and i was encouraged by reports that  did ministration is seeking the support of the gulf states in supplying china with oil china is a large consumer of energy getting larger by the day and if china ends its reliance on iranian oil they may be more likely to support a new and tougher round of sanctions and united nations in my meetings with arab embassadors and representatives to the united states their sense of urgency is palpable as they consider the future of the middle east if iran were to get a nuclear weapon this is a scary prospect unacceptable and the arab states have everything to lose their oil is an important resource that they can use to prevent an iranian nuclear weapons program and an arms race in the region this legislation s sanction companies that provide refined petroleum to iran as other members have already mentioned iran imports forty percent of its oil because the did they do not have enough for finding capacity this bill could could bring a rans economy to a standstill the business class in iran which is rather sophisticated wants to be part of a global economy and they should take this opportunity to say to their leadership in their government and that is enough now is the time to move this legislation and send a strong message to iran and our allies around the world that there are serious and isolating consequences for iran's actions i would also like to thank the chairman for working with me to include language in the bill under consideration today based on a bill that i filed the resolution eight thirty nine twenty two the accountability for business choices in iran asked this legislation which is supported in a bipartisan way in this congress requires companies including foreign companies that have u s government contracts including grants earmarked stimulus funds or bank bailouts just sort of by the day do not conduct business in iran this is again a way of engaging multinational businesses outside the united states as well in making choices they count ability for business choice in iran as has received broad support and i believe its inclusion in this in today's resolution strengthens our efforts today we are requiring companies to certify that they are not providing the last watch of support to the iranian economy by boosting their refined petroleum it's time for companies to make a choice either do business with united states government or do business with iran iran must not get a sticks important when you sit at the negotiating table and i'm supporting the iran fiber trolling sanctions act not because i believe it is ideal but rather because i want to send the message that all options remain on the table if diplomatic negotiations do not produce results as a general rule i am not an enthusiastic supporter of unilateral sanctions and i want to be clear that i fully support the administration's diplomatic efforts so far as we try to change the dynamic with regard to iran and its nuclear ambitions for a nuclear iran is not something that we can tolerate or have at all but we have seen some encouraging signs from recent engagements by the administration and i hope that the progress continues however seeing the clearest in the case and yet of the administration's thinking on the iran issue sank to the issue i'm extremely convinced that the combination of a more affective sanctions regime which t p leaders of iran alongside measures that empower the people to build up their civil society and strive for political representation seems to me exactly the type of approach that we should be taken in the long run it is smart sanctions as opposed to some general science that affect the people of the entire population of iran i've heard many individuals talk about how we don't want to hurt the people of iran because when someone uses the word with a special focus on what types of ministration believe would be most effective from this hearing it became clear that the administration is not entirely comprehensive petroleum sanctions as the best course of action on  mr levy was asked if the administration supports a petroleum embargo and he said i think in the long run we have to but in terms of which the potential of sanctions whether they're more targeted on individual entities in iran as opposed to a broad based thing that would affect the iranian economy like that and i think we have not reached a judgment as to which of those might be the most effective because not only do we want to have the impact on the economy but we want and if we do not have international support then there will be diversions there will be workarounds and the effect of the sanctions will not nearly be as effective around reform refined petroleum sanctions act which imposes a gasoline embargo on iran and which has the support of three quarters of both chambers is apparently not the ideal legislation in the eyes of the administration the administration does not support or opposes obama administration is pursuing its own strategy taking into account a number of factors that must be considered among these are human rights concerns as well as the current political dynamic in iran with the people rising up against the government  with mr steinberg statement he said i do think we always have to worry about the humanitarian impact and the political impact of proposed sanctions because we want to take advantage of a dynamic and not to undercut the think this bill is to the peace and security of the entire world therefore i am a proud co sponsor of the iran refined petroleum sanctions act because i believe we must do everything in our power to stop the iranian nuclear threat a nuclear iran is a danger not only to israel not only to the entire middle east to our european allies and friends and ultimately to the united states iran has repeatedly show evolving and very dangerous influence in south america a nuclear iran would spark an arms race in the middle east the saudis would never stand for a nuclear iran they would likely build up their own defenses including nuclear weapons to counter the iranian threat in a new era of a new nuclear arms race the likes of which this world has never seen before and as we know all too well iran has threatened to wipe israel off the map never again and if we are serious about protecting ourselves from the iran then we must stop this threat now a former former israeli prime minister ariel sharon told a group of congress people during his last visit to the united states iran is as much a threat to the united states and to europe and to the middle east as it is to israel and the world should not leave it to israel to do its dirty work we must use every tool available to us including this important legislation i'm a co sponsor of this bill because it's a clear message to those who do business with iran petroleum sector you can trade with iran and it's less than three hundred billion dollar economy or you can trade with the united states with an economy of more than thirteen trillion dollars i believe the choice should be clear this bill is part of our broader picture we must also enforce our own previously passed sanctions  sanctions that have already been approved by the united nations it's time to put our words into action which unfortunately has not been the case so far our partners on the united nations security council must enforce laws already  and stop our companies from skirting the sanctions we ourselves agreed to if sanctions are to work they must be enforced by all parties before we all face this before we all face this common threat i also want to applaud and thank stuart levy levy under secretary of treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence who has done a masterful job of targeting iran financial sector using your creative mix of diplomacy economics and sanctions mr levy has made it look at it in those terms but these are the concerns that we can fully understand and appreciate that if iran chooses to go by the way of producing nuclear weapons not only does it undermine but it does question the  intentions and iran safeguard violations and i make sure you get a copy on that one issue and  staff on both in terms of putting this together very late last night have done tremendous work i'm not going to mention all the names but i do want to point out one person in particular and that's our legislative counsel who personally even with the discretion to ask someone else to do this work made a very complicated bill complicated for a number of reasons in in some kind of everything i can only speak for myself but number one i commit to be transparent with you in terms of of our goals and the timing and the problems that are coming up and changes are being sought and secondly to germany it was twenty years ago today that very few people understood that the berlin wall would come down beginning on november the ninety one nine hundred eighty nine and so we need to recognize the heroism and as i'm sitting here i'm thinking of our former any all statements not yet submitted for the record the people want some of the record will be included including mine and that the committee is adjourned thank you all very very much for your cooperation and let me just o