Political Quotes

“Mr. Chair, I rise today to offer an amendment that I think every Member of this body can support, no matter how they intend to vote on final passage of H.R. 1638. This amendment simply seeks to insert a single new requirement into the report required by H.R. 1638, and that new requirement is as follows: ``an assessment of the impact and effectiveness of U.S. economic sanctions programs against Iran.'' {time} 1615 Whether you voted for the Iran deal or against it, or whether you think economic sanctions are an effective diplomatic tool or something that sounds better than it is, I hope Members will support this amendment. We should make evidence-based policy decisions in this body, whenever possible, and, toward that end, we should know whether or not the sanctions that we pass here work. If we are going to require a new report from the Treasury in this bill, and that report must include ``a description of how Treasury assesses the impact and effectiveness of U.S. economic sanctions programs against Iran,'' I think it is only appropriate to ask for the assessment itself; and that is what this amendment does. Let me put it another way. Understanding how we count votes in America is important, but at the end of an election, I want to know the final tally. Who won? Who lost? What did we learn? Similarly, I think it is important that if the Treasury is going to have to produce a new report on sanctions against Iran pursuant to H.R.…”