Wendy Sherman: “I thank the gentleman from Ohio for his generosity, especially because he will probably disagree with most of what I…”

“I thank the gentleman from Ohio for his generosity, especially because he will probably disagree with most of what I have to say. As to the consistency of America's nonproliferation policy, I believe we are consistent. We are consistent with the nonproliferation treaty, which I believe is the most important peace treaty of our lifetime. It identifies five states as nuclear states. Three major nations in this world did not sign and do not benefit from the treaty. But Iran, North Korea, and Syria all agreed, as non-nuclear states, agreed not to develop nuclear weapons, and all of them have violated that agreement. I want to commend Chairman Ros-Lehtinen for putting forward this outstanding bill, one of the toughest nonproliferation bills ever to come before Congress. I am the lead Democratic cosponsor of this bill, and I want to thank her for the opportunity to work with her on this important legislation. Iran, Syria, and North Korea are proliferators of nuclear weapons technology, and work together to threaten U.S. interests and allies around the globe. This bill includes an important provision that I put forward in a bill that I introduced in May of 2009. That is, it poses sanctions against those firms that provide North Korea, Iran, or Syria with equipment or technology relevant to mining or milling uranium.…”