Video of Congressman Sherman in Action
Calls for Tougher Bill to Be Quickly Sent to the President
Washington DC – Today, Congressman Brad Sherman (D – CA), the Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade, applauded the Senate Banking Committee for approving legislation to further tighten Iran sanctions and urged that the full Senate move quickly to approve tougher legislation.
“I want to thank Senators Johnson and Shelby for authoring new Iran sanctions legislation, and especially for including sanctions against Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps that draw upon provisions I authored with Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen,” said Congressman Sherman.
“Hopefully, Senate Leadership will move this bill quickly. The House has already passed its version of the Iran legislation, the Iran Threat Reduction Act, so we stand ready to work out the differences between the bills and send tough legislation to the president as soon as possible. However, we will need to significantly strengthen the current legislation as the process moves forward.”
“We need far tougher provisions in order to more effectively address the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear weapons program.”
Title III of the Senate’s bill, The Iran Sanctions Accountability and Human Rights Act of 2012, contains measures targeting the many fronts and affiliates of the IRGC and, more importantly, their international business partners. These provisions are similar to legislation first introduced by Congressman Sherman in 2009, the Iran Revolutionary Guard Designation Implementation Act, and Sherman’s subsequent Iran bill, the Stop Iran’s Nuclear Weapons Program Act of 2010.
These provisions, which were co-authored by current House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, were also included in the House-passed Iran Threat Reduction Act. This House-passed legislation draws several additional provisions from the Stop Iran’s Nuclear Weapons Program Act, including measures to sanction buyers of Iranian sovereign debt, measures to prevent Iran from buying spare aircraft parts, and provisions authorizing states to take measures against Iran’s business partners.
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