To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide for waivers of user fees imposed with respect to applications for reinstatement of tax-exempt status of small, subsidiary tax-exempt organizations.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1698) to expand sanctions against Iran with respect to the ballistic missile program of Iran, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include any extraneous material.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, today the House of Representatives here considers four measures that we have worked on in a bipartisan way, four measures that are consistent with the President's call for an approach to Iran that addresses the full range of threats that it possesses to not just the United States, but to our allies, to our partners as well.

This legislation, which I have authored along with my colleague, Eliot Engel, I am proud to say we now have 323 cosponsors to this bill. This is the bipartisan Iran Ballistic Missiles and International Sanctions Enforcement Act.

What this does is respond to the regime's continued pursuit of intercontinental ballistic missiles and to dangerous conventional weapons.

Mr. Speaker, I will begin by thanking my good friend, Mr. Engel, for his hard work, his collaboration, along with Mr. Steny Hoyer and Mr. McCarthy, in bringing this important legislation to this floor.

Iran has already developed an arsenal of short- and medium-range ballistic missiles, and those missiles put our allies, our partners, as well as U.S. forces in range.

Now Iran is working on intercontinental ballistic missiles. I think to get the point across, I would just quote our former Secretary of Defense, Ash Carter, because he testified before Congress on this issue. What he conveyed to us is: `` . . . the I in ICBM stands for intercontinental, which means having the capability from flying from Iran to the United States, and we don't want that.''

That was the way he explained this.

One of the reasons that we don't want that is that intercontinental ballistic missiles are inherently capable of carrying nuclear weapons. In fact, as one expert told the Foreign Affairs Committee, ``no country that has not aspired to possess nuclear weapons has ever opted to sustain'' a lengthy and expensive missile program.

I would take issue with that. I do know of one exception to that rule. That exception was South Africa under the apartheid regime, which did develop the atomic weapon. It is an example of how sanctions can be successful, because when we passed sanctions here, the consequence was they made a decision to turn that weapon back over to the IAEA, as well as to allow Nelson Mandela to leave jail, and they held elections. That is the exception I know of.

So whether you supported the nuclear deal or whether you opposed that nuclear deal, this other issue should concern you either way. By developing the delivery system, Iran is keeping its options open.

So from those who worked on the deal, one of the architects, Jake Sullivan of the former administration, made it clear to us--and this was 2 weeks ago--that imposing costs on Iran for its continued pursuit of ballistic missiles and other destabilizing activity is ``not only necessary, but justified.''

That is one of the architects of the agreement itself.

That is what this bill does. It requires a comprehensive investigation to identify and designate the companies, the banks, the individuals inside and outside of Iran which supply the regime's missiles and supply their conventional weapons programs, and it sanctions them. In doing so, it shuts out Iranian and foreign companies involved in Iran's missile program. It also shuts out the banks that back them. It shuts them out from the global financial system.

This bill expands Iran sanctions that we passed and were signed into law in August with H.R. 3364, the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act.

For example, while the bill that passed over the summer specifically sanctions those who materially contribute to Iran's ballistic missile program, the bill before us today goes a step further by sanctioning those that are in the business of financing Iran's efforts.

The conventional weapons prohibition in the bill before us are also stronger, and let me explain why. The August legislation referenced the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms, which excludes such items as Russia's recent sale of the S-300 air defense system to Iran. The bill before us ensures that there is no such carve-out.

Mr. Speaker, Members have different views on how to handle Iran's nuclear program, but when it comes to Iran's ballistic missile and conventional weapons programs, all 323 cosponsors of this bill agree: Iran has no business developing or acquiring intercontinental ballistic missiles. That is why it is so important that we pass this bill and give the administration the tools to respond.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

House of Representatives,

Committee on Ways and Means,

Washington, DC, October 23, 2017.

Hon. Edward R. Royce,

Chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs,

Washington, DC.

Dear Chairman Royce: I am writing with respect to H.R.

1698, the ``Iran Ballistic Missiles and International

Sanctions Enforcement Act,'' on which the Committee on Ways

and Means was granted an additional referral.

As a result of your having consulted with us on provisions

in H.R. 1698 that fall within the Rule X jurisdiction of the

Committee on Ways and Means, I agree to waive formal

consideration of this bill so that it may move expeditiously

to the floor. The Committee on Ways and Means takes this

action with the mutual understanding that we do not waive any

jurisdiction over the subject matter contained in this or

similar legislation, and the Committee will be appropriately

consulted and involved as the bill or similar legislation

moves forward so that we may address any remaining issues

that fall within our jurisdiction. The Committee also

reserves the right to seek appointment of an

appropriate number of conferees to any House-Senate

conference involving this or similar legislation, and

requests your support for such request.

Finally, I would appreciate your response to this letter

confirming this understanding, and would ask that a copy of

our exchange of letters on this matter be included in the

Congressional Record during floor consideration of H.R. 1698.

Sincerely,

Kevin Brady,

Chairman.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. McCaul), chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security. He is a former Federal prosecutor and a senior member of our Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. McCarthy), the esteemed majority leader of the House.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen), who chairs the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa, and she is the author of multiple laws addressing the Iranian threat.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe). He is the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade.

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to submit any statements or any material in the Record.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank all our members who worked on this bill. Over the last few years, the Foreign Affairs Committee has conducted dedicated oversight of the threats posed by Iran, and we have had dozens of hearings. And whether the topic was the nuclear program, or the missile program, or Iran's support for terrorism, or the regime's human rights abuses, the conclusion was clear. The United States must respond to the full range of threats, and with this bill and the others before us, that is what we are doing here today.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this measure.

Let me thank our chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, my friend, Ed Royce from California, for his work moving this bill. I was pleased to join him as the lead Democratic cosponsor when we introduced this bill in March of this year.

I stand by his entire statement that he has just made. We have an absolute meeting of the minds on this bill, and that is why we were able to get 323 cosponsors on both sides of the aisle, because people understand and realize the threat that Iran poses to us, to the world, and to our allies.

The Foreign Affairs Committee has been hard at work this year devising new tools and approaches for dealing with the threat of Iran. There is no doubt that Iran must be one of our major priorities in our foreign policy, the world's most prolific state sponsor of terrorism, a serial abuser of human rights, a lifeline for the murderous

Assad regime in Syria, and the challenge we are dealing with today: Iran's illicit development of ballistic missiles.

The chairman and I share the view that when it comes to the nuclear deal, which we both opposed, the best path forward is to enforce the hell out of it even while we work to hold Iran's feet to the fire on all these other harmful activities.

We passed a tough sanctions bill last summer to crack down on Iran, as well as North Korea and Russia. While the bill before us today basically contains very similar provisions which we dealt with then and, as the chairman explained, we go one step further here, I am always eager to find even more ways to dial up pressure on the regime in Tehran, which is a malevolent regime, which is a regime that sponsors terrorism, which is a regime that is hostile to the United States, hostile to our ally Israel, and hostile to our other allies in the Middle East. But I worry that the administration isn't taking this problem seriously.

So far, the White House hasn't fully implemented the previous bill we sent to the President. The White House's approach to the nuclear deal sends a bad message to allies and adversaries around the world that the United States might not live up to its word. Rather than extracting more concessions with Iran, which I believe may be possible by working hard to build a strong multilateral coalition, the course of this may instead push Iran to leave the deal and resume work on a bomb. We can never allow that to happen.

So I am happy that we keep passing the sanctions bills, but Congress' role can only go so far. It is up to the administration to lay out its goals, devise a strategy, and implement the tough sanctions Congress has passed. It is more than 60 days since we passed the sanctions bill, and the President has not implemented it. According to the bill, which the President signed, it was supposed to be implemented within 60 days, so it sends a mixed message.

Talking tough is not enough. Congress sends a bill to the White House, the President signs it, it really should be implemented. So I want to urge the President and the administration to listen to this Congress in a bipartisan way. We passed this bill. It needs to be implemented, and it needs to be passed and implemented again.

In the meantime, I am happy to support this bill. I think this shows that we need to work together when it comes to Iran in a bipartisan way to show that there is really not a shred of difference, that we will not stand for Iran's aggression, we will not stand for the mullahs threatening us, we will not stand for Iran stomping on its own people.

Mr. Speaker, I again thank the chairman for his leadership on this issue. I urge my friends on both sides of the aisle to support it, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, as we have shown again and again, and you can tell with all the comments that were made here, there is support on both sides of the aisle for holding Iran accountable for its dangerous behavior.

While today's bill is similar to the bipartisan sanctions Congress passed during the summer, the direction we are moving today with this bill is the right one: going after Iran for something outside the scope of the nuclear deal.

When the nuclear deal was negotiated, we were told very clearly that it would not prevent us, would not stop us from slapping sanctions on Iran for other things, other things like support of terrorism or ballistic missiles, or all the troublemaking activities that they do.

This is what we are doing today. We are slapping sanctions on Iran for its behavior. We are slapping sanctions on Iran because we are not going to stand for their doing whatever they please and helping terrorism, suppressing rights of its people, and being a general threat to the United States.

So I hope that we can get a strong, bipartisan, overwhelming vote for this bill the way we did in the bill that Chairman Royce and I introduced 3

months ago, again, which gave the President 60 days to identify sanctions, which was not done beyond the 60 days, and I hope that the administration forthwith does that now.

So I think this is an important measure. I think it is an important measure to have a strong bipartisan vote because we have to show the Iranians that, while we may disagree on certain things, there is no disagreement on the fact that we regard Iran as the largest state sponsor of terrorism.

It is true of both sides of the aisle that we regard Iran as threatening; that we regard Iran as dangerous in the Middle East; that we regard Iran, unfortunately, as an adversary of the United States. The comments with the rallies that the Ayatollah holds, death to America, death to Israel, is not something that we can countenance in this country, and so we are going to fight it.

I am very proud of what the House is doing today. I urge a ``yes'' vote. And I want to thank Chairman Royce, once again, for his strong leadership on this measure and so many other measures.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

General Leave

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding time to me. I want to thank the gentleman for his work as chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I stand on this floor thinking of the world and America's place in it. What I desire most is peace. America has no desire to fight those who do not harm us. I would gladly support any international agreement that I thought would bring us to an honorable and enduring peace.

But peace is not based on hope; it is not based on good intentions; and it is not based on pieces of paper signed at well-planned ceremonies. Peace is based on strength. America and our allies will only be at peace if those who hate us fear us. This is where our credibility matters.

When an American President agrees to a deal that is so obviously unequal and untenable, everyone stops fearing us. They start to think they can push us around.

Let me be clear. They may start to push, but no one can knock us down. America will win any fight. Our enemies should know that. But, frankly, I want our enemies to be so afraid of us they don't even want to fight. That saves everyone a great deal of trouble.

When I look back to our nuclear deal with North Korea and our deal with Iran, they aren't just flawed; they are dangerous. The displays of weakness have consequences beyond nuclear weapons.

Our North Korea deal has failed. The Kim regime will soon have nuclear warheads on intercontinental ballistic missiles. These warheads will be capable of hitting our homeland. In the meantime, they have reportedly fired missiles over our allies South Korea and Japan and, almost daily, threatened war.

The deal with Iran is on a path to failure, designed in such a way that, even if it were followed, a regime that chants ``death to America''--let me say that again, a regime that chants ``death to America''--could have nuclear weapons the day after the deal expires.

Even ignoring the deal, Iran continues to destabilize the region for its own goal, funding terrorism abroad and fueling violence between Shia and Sunni Muslims that is tearing the Middle East apart.

The spread of nuclear weapons is a danger in and of itself. I do not need to explain why enemies of the United States should be stopped from gaining the power to level American cities, but the evil is made worse when our enemies, with any weapons, think they can push America and our allies around.

America will not be weak any longer. Today's sanction on Iran undermines its ballistic missile program and the terrorist warriors of Hezbollah whose pockets are filled with Iranian money,

just as their hands are covered with American blood. This is an important part of our Nation's new Iran strategy.

Yesterday, we passed the most far-reaching sanctions we have ever imposed on North Korea. Those who do business with North Korea support a regime run on slave labor. They support a regime that deprives its citizens of every freedom, even the freedom to think, and they support a regime that tortured and murdered American citizen Otto Warmbier not because he committed a crime or threatened their government in any way, but because he was an American. If you do business with such a regime, there will be severe consequences.

I had the honor of meeting Otto's parents, Cindy and Fred. They told me about Otto's warmth, his joy, his love of life, and the great hopes he had. In everything, he stood as a living example of the good in humanity that the Kim regime seeks to destroy. We renamed that legislation as the Otto Warmbier North Korea Nuclear Sanctions Act. It won't bring him back, but it will remind North Korea that evil has consequences.

Otto's murder was a crime we cannot accept, but it is a crime, I fear, our enemies would repeat on a much larger scale if we do not start stopping them now. Let's remind them who they are up against. America will not fail.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, Iran continues to be one of the two greatest threats to the United States' national security and to global security. The other, of course, is North Korea.

It has become very clear that the Iranian deal has not moderated the regime. Regardless of where people are on whether we should have signed it or not signed it, it hasn't stopped the aggressive activity and belief of the regime.

I believe that they are still developing or trying to develop nuclear weapons. No one denies that Iran is actively working toward developing a delivery capability for a nuclear payload. Iran's ballistic missile program is going to be and already is a menace not only to the United States, but to Europe and other parts of the world.

Iran is working with North Korea to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching our shores. These two nations engage in their activity and belief in hate--hate--of freedom to destroy the United States and our some of our allies. We should understand that this is a reality and the threat is now. We should deal with both of those countries accordingly, not in 10 years.

This legislation, Mr. Royce's Iran Ballistic Missiles and International Sanctions Enforcement Act, is very crucial.

We must hold the Ayatollah accountable for threatening the global security and our security.

We must hold the Ayatollah and the IRGC and Hezbollah accountable for the people that have been murdered throughout the world because of their response to hate, their hating of all peoples who don't agree with them.

We must target the entire global supply chain of Iran's ballistic missile program. I believe the Ayatollah, Mr. Speaker, when he tells us, on a periodic basis, ``Death to America.'' I believe him when he says that. That is their foreign policy to the United States: ``Death to America.'' Americans should believe this.

Mr. Speaker, we must make sure that he does not have the capability to achieve a delivery system of his nuclear weapons, and I urge voting in favor of H.R. 1698.

Mr. Speaker, I also do want to mention another bill that I think is important that we pass today, Mr. Deutch's H.R. 359.

In 2013, the European Union finally came around to designating Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, but for reasons that make absolutely no sense to me, the Europeans only designated Hezbollah's military wing, not the political wing. By distinguishing between a terrorist group's so-called military and political wings, it seems like we have legitimized this group's deadly behavior.

Mr. Speaker, Hezbollah is a terrorist organization, and wherever you look in the Middle East and you find trouble, you will find the IRGC and Hezbollah working together. These two agencies from Iran are the gestapo actors for the Iranian Ayatollah, and it is time that we hold them accountable for what they are doing. We must pass these pieces of legislation, and this will go a long way in doing that.

And that is just the way it is.

Mr. Speaker, let me first commend Chairman Royce and Ranking Member Eliot Engel for their strong bipartisan work on this very important legislation that sanctions Iran's ballistic missile program and the Iranian-backed terror group Hezbollah.

Over the last several decades, the tyrannical regime in Iran has been racing to develop a nuclear weapons program that could threaten the United States and our allies and potentially spark an arms race in the Middle East.

Unfortunately, the extremely flawed JCPOA kept parts of Iran's nuclear infrastructure in place and strengthened the regime's leader with a windfall of cash. Because this toothless deal failed to address Iran's other malign activities, such as support for terror and their intercontinental ballistic missile program, we must now find other ways to apply new pressure.

Fortunately, the House is taking action today. One of the bills we are considering will require the President to impose additional sanctions on enemies and individuals supporting Iran's development of ballistic missiles. I sincerely hope that we can soon add even more pressure on Iran by designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization, legislation I pursued in the last two Congresses.

Going after state sponsors is an important part of winning this fight, but we must fight also directly individual terror groups to limit the resources to prevent future attacks. That is why I am pleased that we also are considering measures to target Hezbollah.

This package would direct the President to impose new sanctions on financial institutions and foreign governments that support Hezbollah and affiliated organizations, as well as individual members of the terror groups, that they have used civilians as human shields.

I will say it is Hezbollah that killed so many of our marines in Beirut, Lebanon, let us not forget.

The chairman and ranking member and I recently visited Israel, Prime Minister Netanyahu, who described the Shia Crescent of Iran going into Iraq, into Syria, into Lebanon. He talked to us about the manufacturing plant in Lebanon manufacturing rockets pointed straight at the State of Israel.

These bills, I believe, will take us steps closer toward ridding the world of this terrible threat posed by Islamic terror.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the chairman and ranking member.