Political Quotes

“Let me, first of all, say I appreciate Chairman Royce's consideration of my feedback during the markup, and I know he is well-intentioned with this measure. As he mentioned, I believe that the underlying legislation was too broad. It could have been interpreted as a ban on any payment, including wire transfers, checks, or cash. This does improve the bill. I don't like sending money to Iran, but if we ban any payments to Iran, we would be violating our obligations under the Algiers Accords. So, the specific changes in this bill narrow the banned payments to cash and precious metals. To me, cash is a red herring. No matter how we pay money to Iran, whether cash or wire transfer, once the money gets to an Iranian bank account, it is impossible for us to track it. We can imagine how Iranians use it, but we can't know for certain. Whether cash or wire transfer, we can't prevent them from doing the terrible things they do. So let's not talk about the form of the payment when I think our real concern is that we don't like what Iran does with money that it legally obtains. Additionally, my understanding is that the settlement in question required an immediate payment. So as much as it might be counterintuitive, electronic wire payments to Iran have taken months to complete, while the cash option met the terms of the settlement. It is galling.…”