Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism, is a gross violator of human rights that systematically violates and persecutes religious minorities and cracks down on civil rights.

As the negotiations continue with Iran over its nuclear program, it is important to highlight just what kind of regime the administration is prepared to ease sanctions on in return for empty promises.

It is essential that Congress send a strong signal to Israel and to the world that we remain committed to our relationship with our friend and strategic ally, the democratic Jewish State of Israel.

It is imperative that these artifacts are returned to the descendants of the Jewish community from which they were wrongly confiscated, and not by the Iraqi Government.

We must stay strong in sanctions, yet at the first sign of this fairy tale progress, we balked.

Well, history has shown us that our high hopes on Iran are misplaced and are always met with empty promises.

For over 10 years, administration after administration, I have been trying to remove waiver authority, have introduced and passed several sanctions bills.

Imagine how much more effective they could have been if we in the United States fully and forcefully implemented and enforced them 100 percent of the time with no waivers.

We must not accept Iran's false claim to the right of enrichment, nor should we offer to ease any sanctions on this murderous regime.

It is time for the Iranian regime to end its persecution of religious minorities and immediately release Saeed and others like him.

Despite Rouhani's rhetoric and his charm offensive, every indication is that he continues in his predecessor's footsteps and has not halted or even curbed the regime's systematic and widespread human rights violations.

This is an American being held hostage by the Government of Iran.

This humanitarian tragedy has resulted in the deaths of at least 100,000 over the last 2 years.

Now in its third year, the Syrian conflict has caused unspeakable damage to the people of Syria.

It's appalling that this administration has not prioritized the overturning of these politically motivated convictions.

It's disappointing that the Obama administration recently suspended some aid to Egypt without consulting with Congress.

Morsi may have won an election but we all know that elections alone do not make a democracy.

By failing to act decisively before, during and after the Morsi era, we have lost so much credibility and leverage in Egypt.

When will the administration push for Egyptian authorities to pardon these human rights advocates and what are you doing to support civil society programs in Egypt?

The Morsi experiment in Egypt was doomed to fail and our administration's lack of a coherent and consistent Egypt policy is part of this pathetic state of affairs.

We have been played in that part of the world. We continue to be played in that part of the world and the American people are sick and tired of it.

But, more importantly, he was the consummate gentleman. He was principled. He was honest, maintaining civility with his colleagues, a trait that we no longer honor as we should. Bill was an example for all of us here in Congress. It was my…

Bill was a true patriot and a tenacious public servant, dedicating his life to his constituents in Pinellas County.

I would like to thank our hero, Chris Smith, for bringing this important legislation for markup today

My adopted homeland, the greatest country on Earth, to any country in the world.