Ileana Ros-Lehtinen: “Just a few days ago, the White House formally transmitted to Congress the Iranian nuclear agreement. I am holding it…”

“Just a few days ago, the White House formally transmitted to Congress the Iranian nuclear agreement. I am holding it here in my hand. And now there will be much discussion in Congress over the role of this legislative body regarding nuclear agreements, but I would like to remind my colleagues that a process is already in place for civil nuclear agreements. This Iran deal that we have in front of us includes sections about a civil nuclear cooperation with Iran. Under current law, section 123 of the Atomic Energy Act specifies the conditions by which the United States should enter into a civil nuclear cooperation agreement with other countries. Parts of the terms determined by the 123 agreement is the cessation from enrichment or reprocessing, a term that is coined, Mr. Speaker, as the gold standard. But the Obama administration has taken the liberty to enter into 123 agreements without abiding by the gold standard. Why should we hold different countries accountable for different terms when it comes to proliferation? We should be holding each country to the very strictest of standards to ensure maximum safeguards are in place. This is why, Mr. Speaker, in the last Congress I reintroduced, alongside with my congressional colleague Brad Sherman, a bill which reforms the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 to provide greater congressional oversight of nuclear agreements with foreign countries and to protect against the threat of nuclear proliferation.…”