Matt Gaetz: “I thank the gentleman for yielding me time. I also thank the gentleman from Tennessee for introducing this responsible…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding me time. I also thank the gentleman from Tennessee for introducing this responsible legislation. Mr. Speaker, I look forward to circumstances where this administration will have additional tools to deal with transnational criminal organizations, and I hope that we will use those tools to counter the threat posed by Hezbollah. Hezbollah is not a political party. It is not a quaint reflection of history. It is a web of terrorists and criminals, and that web extends here to our hemisphere. In fact, in 2009, there was an arrest made in Philadelphia, where Hezbollah operatives were looking to move 1,200 machine guns into Syria. More recent arrests have been made in Latin America, where countries like Argentina, Peru, and Paraguay are dealing with an enhanced Hezbollah presence. This important legislation will help us build a plan to leverage our allies, to leverage the Organization of American States and other assets so that we recognize the threat that Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations pose and so that we meet that threat head-on.”