Ed Royce: “In summation, Mr. Chairman, throughout negotiations on the President's nuclear deal, the Foreign Affairs Committee held…”

“In summation, Mr. Chairman, throughout negotiations on the President's nuclear deal, the Foreign Affairs Committee held scores of briefings and hearings and meetings with the Obama administration on Iran. So if the goal of this settlement was only to put to rest a decade- old excuse over an abandoned arms sale, why the secrecy? And why the secrecy, especially, about transferring this in pallets of cash? I believe what happened here was that Iran, at the eleventh hour, demanded this cash payment and we ended up acquiescing. And why ignore your own lawyers? That is the other real question, to me. The head of the Justice Department's National Security Division warned that Iran would see it as a ransom and respond by taking more American hostages. And that is exactly what happened. They held the cash until the hostages left Iran that day. Even the State Department calls it leverage. It was textbook ransom. The Iranians viewed it as a ransom. They bragged about it. And now 3 more Americans have been taken hostage. In an interview just yesterday, President Rouhani said Iran is actively engaged in negotiations with the Obama administration to get more money. And that is why the bill in front of us today does two things: it provides more transparency regarding the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal and it prohibits cash payments to the Government of Iran, the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism, for any reason.…”