David Price: “I stand in opposition to this bill. The Iran nuclear agreement stands as a major diplomatic achievement that has…”

“I stand in opposition to this bill. The Iran nuclear agreement stands as a major diplomatic achievement that has destroyed Iran's capacity to develop a nuclear weapon. Detractors point to Iran's bad behavior in other realms--ballistic missiles, support for Hezbollah, violations of human rights. We acknowledge these problems. Nobody is talking about coddling Iran or apologizing for Iran. I resent that implication by the last speaker. The fact is, we take these problems and these challenges very, very seriously; but we also note that there is not a one of them that wouldn't be much more serious if we were dealing with a nuclear-capable state. So we have got to protect this agreement. We have got to be wary of any proposals that would directly or indirectly threaten it. And that brings us to the bill before us, H.R. 4324, the so-called Strengthening Oversight of Iran's Access to Finance Act, which would make it much more difficult for Iran to purchase commercial aircraft from firms that do business with the United States. Now, as we all know, Iran's ability to replenish its aging civil aviation fleet, which was depleted by decades of sanctions, was a key incentive for Tehran to sign on to the JCPOA. Kenneth Katzman of the Congressional Research Service said: ``Iran would view the bill's enactment into law as a breach of the JCPOA. The agreement contains a clear U.S.…”