Washington DC - Today, Congressman Brad Sherman called to congratulate Rebecca Mieliwocki, a local Burbank teacher who was named 2012’s Teacher of the Year.  The Council of Chief State School Officers announced that Rebecca Mieliwocki, a 7th grade English teacher in California is the 62nd National Teacher of the Year. Mieliwocki, along with all 2012 State Teachers of the Year will be recognized by President Barack Obama in a ceremony at the White House, on Tuesday, April 24.

 “I am thrilled that the 2012 Teacher of the Year is right here in Burbank,” said Congressman Sherman. “Rebecca Mieliwocki is an inspiration to us all.  I had an opportunity to congratulate Rebecca today and look forward to congratulating her in person in my office tomorrow.  When I spoke to her, her enthusiasm for teaching was infectious.  I commend not only Ms. Mieliwocki, but all other teachers across our country who have dedicated themselves to one of the most noble and important jobs in our society.  I look forward to joining everyone in celebrating this outstanding award at Luther Burbank Middle School on April 30th."

Rebecca Lynn Mieliwocki is a seventh grade English teacher at Luther Burbank Middle School, which houses 1100 students. She has been teaching for 14 years and has spent 9 years in her current position. Rebecca holds a Bachelor of Arts in Speech Communication from California Polytechnic State University. She received the PTA Honorary Service Award in 2009 and served as a teacher expert for CSUN College of Education Panel titled "Managing the Paper Load."  A child of two veteran public school teachers, Rebecca shied away from becoming a teacher early in life, but realized that there is "no nobler profession" than teaching.  Her own K-12 teachers serve as her heroes and she models her teaching style on the example they set for her. She works hard to provide her students with an exciting and dynamic lesson that is both educational and amusing-because her students learn better in this environment. She believes strongly in the importance of good teacher preparation programs and values the teaching profession as a sought-after career.

"Rebecca is the kind of teacher that students look back on and say “She changed my life,” said Luther Burbank Middle School Pricipal Brian O'Rourke. "Rebecca teaches because it is a calling for her and her passion for students is an integral part of who she is."

"Students learn best when they have the most enthusiastic, engaged teachers possible," says Mieliwocki. “I firmly believe that teachers must be held accountable for their students’ success, from helping them meet personal or school-wide learning goals to achieving on district and state level assessments. Our students are our future, so we, their teachers, must do our best to inspire them and guide them to greatness."

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Washington DC – Today, Congressman Brad Sherman (D – CA), the Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade, introduced new legislation, the Iran Financial Sanctions Improvement Act, with several new provisions to tighten international financial pressure on Iran’s banking sector.  The bill is cosponsored by Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.  Senator Mark Kirk (R- IL) is expected to introduce similar measures in the Senate.

The bill would expand current efforts to sanction the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) unless it discontinue the practice of allowing Iranian banks to utilize its communications services.  Currently, the European Union is considering measures to prevent SWIFT from doing business with some Iranian banks, reportedly only the Central Bank of Iran and other “designated” Iranian banks.  Sherman’s new legislation applies to all Iranian banks – the bill would sanction the SWIFT network as long as it conducted services on behalf of any Iranian bank.

SWIFT handles secure communications between banks internationally, sending payment orders that are settled through accounts that the banks have with each other.  Every time banks make payments for one of their customers to an account in another bank, they utilize the SWIFT system.  Iran’s banks would find it very difficult to process most transactions without the benefit of the system, and trade with the outside world would become even more cumbersome for Tehran.

These provisions included in this bill will be introduced in the Senate as an amendment to the Iran Sanctions, Accountability and Human Rights Act of 2012 by Senator Mark Kirk.

“As Tehran brazenly continues its pursuit of a nuclear weapon, we need to leave no stone unturned in our effort to financially pressure and isolate Iran,” Sherman said.  “If Iran cannot process payments with SWIFT members, Iran will find that its remaining trading partners either give up entirely, or will demand more in payment for what they send to Iran, or demand to pay less for what they buy from the Iranians.” 

Sherman is also the lead Democratic cosponsor of legislation already introduced in the House, H.R. 3880 that would penalize the SWIFT network if it does not stop doing business with Iranian banks.

Sherman’s new bill would also similarly expand Section 104 of CISADA, the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act, which provides for sanctions against financial entities that engage in transactions with designated Iranian banks. The new bill would apply this provision to all Iranian banks – not just those that are designated by the Treasury Department.

Another provision in Sherman’s sanctions bill would expand the Menendez-Kirk provision in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that targeted the Central Bank of Iran (CBI). The new bill would expand the NDAA provisions to sanction not only those companies that facilitate transactions on behalf of CBI, but also those who hold financial assets on behalf of CBI.  A 2009 court decision revealed that an American bank had been ordered to freeze almost $2 billion worth of debt securi¬ties belonging to Iran. The funds were at the bank in the name of Clearstream, a Luxembourg-based clearinghouse and bank owned by the Deutsche Börse Group. Under the new bill, these types of activities on behalf of CBI would be subject to stiff penalties.

Additionally, the new Sherman bill contains provisions to clarify the imposition of current sanctions law to cover the provision of insurance or underwriting for any sanctionable act with regard to business with or in Iran would be subject to sanctions themselves. 

“We must expand financial sanctions against the Iranian banking sector to include all Iranian banks – not just the Central Bank of Iran and those roughly twenty banks already designated by the Treasury Department,” continued Sherman. 

“I urge my colleagues in the House and Senate to confer quickly once the Senate passes it’s bill and send the toughest possible Iran sanctions bill to the President that puts increasingly pressure on Iran’s faltering economy,” said Sherman.  “We cannot relent as long as Tehran is full speed ahead towards a nuclear weapon.”

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In response to Sherman’s questioning, Secretary Clinton said she believed that “using the SWIFT system is a very effective way of utilizing the financial system to further isolate Iran” and that “we will engage with the Federal Reserve” to provide them with guidance on the issue.  Earlier, Bernanke noted that the Fed is one of the supervisors of SWIFT and that it would be feasible for the Fed to work successfully to prevent the network from handling communications for Iranian Banks.  Bernanke’s comments were in response to Sherman’s question.

“In response to my question, Bernanke said he was confident that the Fed could act successfully to exclude Iranian banks from SWIFT, but he wanted input from those responsible for U.S. foreign policy,” said Sherman.  “That’s why it was important for me to get Secretary Clinton to endorse excluding all Iranian banks from SWIFT when she testified later that afternoon.”

SWIFT handles secure communications between banks internationally, sending payment orders that are settled through accounts that the banks have with each other. Every time banks make payments for one of their customers to an account in another bank, they utilize the SWIFT system.  Iran’s banks would find it very difficult to process most transactions without the benefit of the system, and trade with the outside world would become even more cumbersome for Tehran. 

Sherman stressed with both officials that all Iranian banks, not just those currently under sanction, should be prevented from using SWIFT’s services. 

“We need to leave no stone unturned in our effort to economically isolate Iran,” Sherman said.  “If they cannot process payments with SWIFT members, Iran will find that its remaining trading partners either give up entirely, or will demand more in payment for what they send to Iran, and demand to pay less for what they buy from the Iranians.” 
 
Sherman is the lead Democratic cosponsor of legislation introduced in the House, H.R. 3880 that would penalize the network if it did not stop doing business with Iranian banks.  Similar legislation was added to the Senate’s main Iran sanction’s bill earlier in February by an amendment authored by Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Roger Wicker (R-MS) in the Banking Committee.  That bill, the Iran Sanctions, Accountability and Human Rights Act of 2012, awaits action by the full Senate

The exchanges between Sherman and Bernanke, and Sherman and Clinton can be found here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA36_xa6YU4 and here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1ae6J-TiUs. 
 
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