On the recordJanuary 26, 2010
at the end of last December, I made a commitment to bring S. 2799, the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions Accountability and Divestment Act, to the Senate floor. This critical legislation would impose new sanctions on Iran's refined petroleum sector and tighten existing U.N. sanctions. The act will create pressure on the Iranian regime and help stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. I thank Senator Dodd, Senator Kerry, and many other Senators for their hard work. I have had conversations with the distinguished Republican leader. We are committed to finding a time to do this legislation. This is going to be a piece of legislation dealing with just this narrow issue. We cannot get into foreign aid and all those other things. I am reaching out to my Republican colleagues to help me find a path to get that done in the next few weeks. We started this session by working on important legislation to prevent the Federal Government from defaulting on its obligations, including my amendment to put in place strict statutory requirements that will ensure the cost of any new spending or tax cuts will not increase our deficit. But everyone should know that I am looking forward to moving on the Iran Sanctions Act, as I have indicated, but we are going to need some cooperation to get this legislation done.





