Lee Zeldin: “I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, earlier this year, the Treasury Department transferred $1.7…”

“I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, earlier this year, the Treasury Department transferred $1.7 billion to Iran's Central Bank to resolve a long-running financial dispute regarding Iran's arms purchases before the revolution of 1979. The agreement involved the return of $400 million in Iranian funds that the United States seized after the revolution plus an additional $1.3 billion in interest. This financial transaction was carried out through the Department of the Treasury Judgment Fund, a permanent, indefinite appropriation that was created by Congress in 1956 to pay judgments entered against the United States. While the U.S. Department of the Treasury claims that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, IRGC, remains sanctioned under our current sanctions regime, an associate fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Saeed Ghasseminejad, recently noted that Iran's Guardian Council approved the government's 2017 budget that instructed Iran's Central Bank to transfer that $1.7 billion to Iran's military establishment, which includes the IRGC. According to administration officials, outstanding legal claims against the United States by Iran remain, meaning that future payments could be made as a result of any resulting settlement. It is unacceptable for additional U.S. taxpayer dollars to flow into the hands of the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism, and that is why this amendment is needed.…”