Hizballah International Financing Prevention Amendments Act of 2018

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 1595) to amend the Hizballah International Financing Prevention Act of 2015 to impose additional sanctions with respect to Hizballah, and for other purposes, as amended.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, today, we will consider a House-Senate agreement on additional measures targeting Hezbollah, Iran's leading terrorist proxy, with tough new sanctions that we will impose with this bill.

Last Congress, the Hizballah International Financing Prevention Act was signed into law. This legislation threatened to cut off any financial institution that knowingly facilitates significant transactions for Hezbollah from the U.S. financial system. That was a major step in the financial fight against Hezbollah.

In the immediate aftermath of the law's enactment, Hezbollah's leader gave a public speech blasting U.S. sanctions as ``unjust and false accusations.''

Hezbollah also asserted that it ``does not have any funds in any bank in the world . . . or in Lebanese banks and the central bank and the directors of banks must not panic.''

Well, if a terrorist organization must publicly state that they are not panicking, then they are definitely panicking. And Hezbollah was panicking, Mr. Speaker, following the passage of this landmark legislation.

Hezbollah reportedly had to cut salaries, defer payments to suppliers, and slash money stipends to allied parties. Facing increased financial pressure, Hezbollah has also lashed out most recently by bombing a Lebanese bank in an effort to intimidate the board members into noncompliance. But Hezbollah's cowardly stance and its scare tactics have not worked.

Lebanese banks have gone above and beyond the letter of the new U.S. law to proactively offload Hezbollah-linked bank accounts, forcing Hezbollah to look elsewhere for financial services.

Yet, as time has progressed, Hezbollah has found temporary, albeit cumbersome, workarounds. It is time to send Hezbollah into a panic again, and this new legislation that we are considering tonight will do just that.

First, the legislation mandates the application of sanctions against agencies of foreign states that provide weapons to Hezbollah--namely, Iran. Iran is the principal, external financial backer of Hezbollah, a fact that the leader of Hezbollah has openly admitted to for years.

It is estimated that Iranian funding to Hezbollah exceeds $700 million per year. This is in addition to a rapid expansion in both the quantity and the quality of weapons provided to Hezbollah by Iran.

In May, the Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the governor of the Central Bank of Iran and another senior bank official, accusing them of funneling millions of dollars to Hezbollah. But more can be done, and more must be done.

This new legislation takes aim at Hezbollah's enablers, both inside and outside of Lebanon. It mandates sanctions against any person or entity that engages in a transaction with anyone aiding Hezbollah's fundraising or recruitment.

This includes Hezbollah's foreign relations department, its television station, and its companies that maintain Hezbollah's social media accounts.

This legislation also requires the administration to issue a report laying out the assets of senior Hezbollah members and associates. This should clearly be applicable to Hezbollah's senior allies in the Lebanese Government.

Hezbollah is constantly expanding and exploiting its extensive criminal networks from narcotics trafficking to human trafficking in order to escape sanctions and attack Western interests. So to address this new threat, this legislation also imposes transnational organized criminal organization sanctions on Hezbollah's criminal networks, and it requires the administration to report to us in Congress on Hezbollah's racketeering activities, which can serve as a basis for applying RICO penalties to Hezbollah.

In sum, Mr. Speaker, this legislation is an important expansion of our efforts to take aim at Hezbollah, to take aim at its enablers, and to take aim at its state sponsor, Iran.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this effort to ensure that the United States continues to have the tools to respond to the threats caused by Hezbollah.

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

House of Representatives,

Committee on Financial Services,

Washington, DC, September 7, 2018.

Hon. Ed Royce,

Chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs,

Washington, DC.

Dear Chairman Chairman Royce: I am writing concerning S.

1595, the Hizballah International Financing Prevention

Amendments Act of 2017.

As a result of your having consulted with the Committee on

Financial Services concerning provisions in the bill that

fall within our Rule X jurisdiction, I agree to forgo action

on the bill so that it may proceed expeditiously to the House

Floor. The Committee on Financial Services takes this action

with our mutual understanding that, by foregoing

consideration of S. 1595, at this time, we do not waive any

jurisdiction over the subject matter contained in this or

similar legislation, and that our Committee will be

appropriately consulted and involved as this or similar

legislation moves forward so that we may address any

remaining issues that fall within our Rule X jurisdiction.

Our 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 any such request.

Finally, I would appreciate your response to this letter

confirming this understanding with respect to S. 1595 and

would ask that a copy of our exchange of letters on this

matter be included in the Congressional Record during floor

consideration thereof.

Sincerely,

Jeb Hensarling,

Chairman.

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman of our very bipartisan committee, the Foreign Affairs Committee, Chairman Ed Royce, as well as Matt Zweig on his staff--he will be embarrassed that I say that--and Ranking Member Eliot Engel. I thank Mr. Engel for those wonderful words. I am going to miss working with him greatly. We have worked on so many important pieces of legislation together. And Mira Resnick and Edmund Rice on his staff, what a delight they have been. I thank them for their collaboration in developing this critical legislation. I am going to miss working with all of them.

I also want to thank Senate Banking Chairman Mike Crapo and Ranking Member Sherrod Brown, and John O'Hara and Colin McGinnis of their staff, for their hard work and commitment to achieving the strong, sound, bipartisan agreement that we have before us today.

Finally, I thank my hometown Senator, Senator Rubio, as well as Senator Shaheen, who have taken the lead on this effort on the other side.

For 30 years, Mr. Speaker, Hezbollah has remained Iran's proxy. Iran remains Hezbollah's primary source of financial support. What a terrible relationship these two have had.

This bill builds on our past efforts. It ramps up pressure on this dangerous terrorist group. It sanctions regimes, including Iran and Syria, because they are providing weapons to Hezbollah. It targets Hezbollah's innovative fund-raising and recruiting efforts, including its attempt to crowdsource small donations to support its fighters. And it recognizes that Hezbollah is more than a terrorist group; it is also a global criminal organization, an enterprise that profits from drug trafficking, money laundering, and counterfeiting.

This bill gives the administration the tools to respond accordingly. We must employ a combination of law enforcement, financial, criminal, civil, and regulatory tools to deter, disrupt, and publicly illuminate the global illicit Hezbollah network. And we have to continue to work together to confront this threat.

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

Mr. Speaker, I echo Mr. Engel's remarks that, under the leadership of Chairman Royce and Ranking Member Engel, our Foreign Affairs Committee is one of the most bipartisan committees of the House.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this measure. Let me first thank our chairman on the Foreign Affairs Committee, Ed Royce, who has done great work to get this bill to the finish line.

I want to especially thank my dear friend and colleague, Ileana Ros- Lehtinen, who was so instrumental in crafting this bill and then getting it passed, like so many other things she has done for so many years on the Foreign Affairs Committee. It has just been an honor and a pleasure to work with her, and we are going to miss her. But she has done some great work, and people's lives will be saved because of the work that Ileana Ros-Lehtinen has done, so I want to thank her.

I am also grateful to the Members of the other body who have helped push this measure forward. This bill is the product of a good, bipartisan effort aimed at a clear goal to isolate Hezbollah, one of the world's most dangerous terrorist organizations.

With hundreds of thousands of rockets pointed at Israel and fighters returning home, battle-hardened from years fighting alongside the Assad regime in Syria, Hezbollah has become more sophisticated and more lethal.

Hezbollah, with support from Iran, has served as a lifeline to Assad, allowing his regime to butcher the Syrian people. Without Hezbollah's support, Assad would have been swept out of power years ago.

When he was losing, Hezbollah came in. Iran unleashed Hezbollah, and they turned the tide in the war. Birds of a feather flock together, unfortunately, and Hezbollah has also gained from this relationship.

The war in Syria bound Hezbollah and Russia together. The result was deeper coordination and training between the two. Russia talks a good game about fighting terrorism, but its partnership with Hezbollah has shown that Moscow is eager to collaborate with a group that has American blood on its hands.

Now is the time to choke Hezbollah off from its patrons. This bill would give the administration every tool it needs to confront this dangerous group. With this measure, we build on a 2015 law by imposing sanctions on anyone who knowingly supports Hezbollah's fundraising and recruitment efforts.

As terrorist groups, including Hezbollah, rely more and more on online crowd sourcing and social media to spread their message, we need to be one step ahead.

This bipartisan legislation also imposes sanctions on any part of a foreign government that supplies material support or arms to Hezbollah.

That could include Russia and Iran for the training and assistance they provide to Hezbollah in Syria.

This measure would also ramp up oversight on the administration's strategies when it comes to diplomatic engagement to shut off Hezbollah's networks and safe havens. This legislation is meant to signal to anyone who supports Hezbollah: Your time is up.

Let me add a final note about Hezbollah as it concerns Lebanon. I have been a friend of Lebanon for many years. Back in 2003, I wrote the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act with my friend Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. We pressed Syria to get out of Lebanon and allow Lebanon to secure its own independence, free from Syria's outside influence.

Unfortunately, Hezbollah has, so far, endured as a fact of life in Lebanese politics. The Lebanese people deserve better. Hezbollah should stop holding the Lebanese people hostage to its radical agenda.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, in closing, Hezbollah is a threat to peace and stability across the Middle East. This group is emerging from the Syrian civil war even more dangerous and determined to spread its hatred and violence. Their tactics have grown more sophisticated, and we need to give the administration every tool we can to crack down on this group. This bill is a strong move in that direction. It is a great example of what we can produce when we work

across the aisle on national security issues.

Let me say, I never hesitate to say how proud I am of the Foreign Affairs Committee and Chairman Ed Royce and the leadership of the committee on both sides of the aisle for what we think as being the most bipartisan committee in Congress. It is important when we are talking about foreign policy that America speak with one voice, and it is important when we talk about foreign policy that politics stops at the water's edge.

This bill is a very important bill. It is a great example of what we can produce when we work across the aisle, and I am glad we are getting it across the finish line before we wrap up our work this month.

Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. President, I wish to submit to the Senate the budget scorekeeping report for November 2018. The report compares current-law levels of spending and revenues with the amounts the Senate agreed to in the budget resolution for fiscal year 2018, H. Con. Res. 71, and the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, BBA18. This information is necessary for the Senate Budget Committee to determine whether budgetary points of order lie against pending legislation. The Republican staff of the Budget Committee and the Congressional Budget Office, CBO, prepared this report pursuant to section 308(b) of the Congressional Budget Act,

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be discharged from further consideration of S. 1595 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

The clerk will report the bill by title.

Mr. President, I ask the Chair to lay before the Senate the House amendment to accompany S. 1595.

I move to concur in the House amendment, and I ask unanimous consent that the motion be agreed to, and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.