Dianne Feinstein: “today I join Senators Lautenberg and Feingold in cosponsoring an amendment to the Department of Defense authorization…”

“today I join Senators Lautenberg and Feingold in cosponsoring an amendment to the Department of Defense authorization bill. This amendment will close loopholes that have allowed some American companies to skirt U.S. law by working with and operating in countries that have been identified by the President as supporters of terrorism. Although Federal law prohibits U.S. companies from conducting business with nations that sponsor terrorism, a few firms have exploited a loophole in the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and are doing business through foreign subsidiaries, thereby providing terrorist states with revenue and other potentially important benefits. Under the amendment we are introducing today, foreign subsidiaries are barred from engaging in commercial transactions with terrorist-sponsoring states under the same standards and under the same circumstances as their parent companies. The definition of corporate entity would include not only U.S. companies and all foreign branches, but also foreign subsidiaries.”