Peter Roskam: “Thank you, Chairman Royce, for your leadership on this issue. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of Mr. Russell's…”

“Thank you, Chairman Royce, for your leadership on this issue. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of Mr. Russell's initiative. Last night, Mr. Speaker, there was a murmur throughout the room here when the President was giving the State of the Union message. I am paraphrasing, but when he made the assertion that essentially the United States is perceived well around the world and, in fact, better than ever before, there was an audible sense of outcry. People were really concerned about that assertion. Then the President went on to make his point. I think it is an admonition for us all to recognize, as Judge Poe said a couple of moments ago, there is a wobbliness in this administration. In other words, how many provocations are the Iranians able to move forward and the administration is inert? How many provocations can the Iranians push and the administration remains with no action? I will tell you something. This is just off the news. Reuters is reporting that the Major General Hassan Firouzabadi, the head of the Iranian Armed Forces, says that the naval incident that is being reconciled today, that this should be a lesson to whom? To troublemakers in Congress--troublemakers in Congress--who oppose Iranian aggression. I think Mr. Russell's approach here is very commonsense. It says those who have been complicit in sponsoring terror in the past ought not be getting the benefit of the sanctions regime being raised; they don't get the benefit of participating in that.…”