No Paydays for Hostage-Takers Act

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5826) to require a report on sanctions under the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act, 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 include extraneous material on this measure.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the No Paydays for Hostage-Takers Act.

For 45 years, the outrageous regime in Tehran has kidnapped American hostages. It is a cruel, yet consistent, part of this bloodthirsty regime's character. Iran utilizes hostage-taking as a negotiating tactic and a funding mechanism. In doing so, Iran repeatedly victimizes innocent Americans and their families who endure years of false accusations, wretched conditions, and separation. No one deserves this treatment. Iranian Americans are very successful and appreciated in America, and all Americans equally appreciate the oppressed people of Iran.

Unfortunately, both the Obama and Biden administrations have made the catastrophic mistake of cutting financial deals with Iran in order to free hostages. Make no mistake, Mr. Speaker, Iran sees dollar signs whenever it sees American passports. It knows it can take innocent Americans, hold them in prison for years, and see a windfall at the end. This is the same tactic of war criminal Putin, kidnapping Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.

In 2016, the Obama administration ignorantly capitulated a $1.7 billion ransom to Iran, including a $400 million payment in pallets of cash at the same time that Iran released four U.S. hostages.

At the time, many warned that if the United States Government would pay for hostages, then Iran would keep taking them and demand a higher and higher price.

Sure enough, in the next 7 years, Iran continued to hold and collect more American hostages. These people suffered away from their families and were deprived of their liberty for years until last summer, the Biden administration cut a deal to secure their freedom by granting loan access to $6 billion in sanctioned funds used to murder Iranians and to murder Americans, such as the three Army Reservists from Georgia killed on January 28 of this year.

Some might claim that these funds are only for humanitarian goods. First, this naively puts too much trust in a regime skilled at sanctions evasion and other forms of illicit finance. Second, money is fungible, and this deal freed up $6 billion in funds for the regime to finance its military program, terrorist proxies, nuclear activities, and repression.

Right now, Iran is incentivized to keep taking hostages. They keep benefiting.

That is why today we are considering my bipartisan bill to ensure that Iran never again profits from taking American hostages. This bill imposes sanctions on Iranian officials identified as being responsible for or complicit in taking American citizens hostage. It also greatly limits the travel of Iranian diplomats at the U.N. They should not be allowed to come here and gallivant around the New York metropolitan area while innocent Americans languish in Iranian prisons.

It also requires a detailed report to give Congress full visibility on how Iran is using the $6 billion so that the American people's elected Representatives can conduct thorough oversight of these funds.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in voting for this important bill to protect Americans from Iran's brutal hostage-taking, and I reserve the balance of my time.

House of Representatives,

Committee on the Judiciary,

Washington, DC, March 20, 2024.

Hon. Michael McCaul,

Chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs,

Washington, DC.

Dear Chairman McCaul: I write regarding H.R. 5826, the No

Paydays for Hostage-Takers Act. Provisions of this bill fall

within the Judiciary Committee's Rule X jurisdiction, and I

appreciate that you consulted with us on those provisions.

The Judiciary Committee agrees that it shall be discharged

from further consideration of the bill so that it may proceed

expeditiously to the House floor.

The Committee takes this action with the understanding that

forgoing further consideration of this measure does not in

any way alter the Committee's jurisdiction or waive any

future jurisdictional claim over these provisions or their

subject matter. We also reserve the right to seek appointment

of an appropriate number of conferees in the event of a

conference with the Senate involving this measure or similar

legislation.

I ask that you please include this letter in your

committee's report to accompany this legislation or insert

this letter in the Congressional Record during consideration

of H.R. 5826 on the House floor. I appreciate the cooperative

manner in which our committees have worked on this matter,

and I look forward to working collaboratively in the future

on matters of shared jurisdiction. Thank you for your

attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Jim Jordan,

Chairman.

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

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I am grateful for the leadership of Michael McCaul, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and the ranking member, Greg Meeks. Those of us in South Carolina are always happy to point out his South Carolina heritage as he now ably represents Queens, but we remember his heritage of Rock Hill, and we appreciate his success.

This legislation is so important to strike back against Iran's decades-long strategy of taking innocent Americans hostage to the House floor today.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5826, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I appreciate the intent of this measure brought to the floor by my friend and colleague from South Carolina, Representative Wilson, which is to help better prevent hostile governments such as Iran from taking Americans hostage or wrongfully detaining them overseas.

I believe Democrats and Republicans must work together and ensure the State Department has all the resources and authorities from Congress that it needs to bring Americans home who have been unjustly held abroad and to offer them the support they need when they return home.

I understand and agree with my colleague's intent to disincentivize bad behavior by hostile actors, and to make clear to anyone who would wrongfully detain any of our citizens that it will not be tolerated.

However, I am concerned that some of the messages sent in this bill risk undermining our key partners in the battle to protect American citizens. I want to make sure the State Department's Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs is given the latitude to negotiate and get the job done.

I would like to offer my appreciation to the SPEHA team for the hard and difficult work it continues to undertake on behalf of the American people. We need to empower that office and the families of wrongful detainees that rely on its vital assistance and advocacy, not inadvertently burden it with extensive reporting or overly restrictive policy prescriptions.

I also want to be certain we do not restrict the freedom of movement of

Americans, something that is fundamental to our liberty and, specifically, the impact such a move would have on hundreds of thousands of Iranian Americans who expect our government, unlike the regime in Tehran, to respect their fundamental rights.

That is why I am glad the language on the issue has been made nonbinding, and I really appreciate Representative Wilson working with us on this bill and the effort to make sure that the United States Government's approach on hostages and wrongful detention is smart and effective. We have worked together to achieve this.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I encourage my colleagues to join in supporting this measure. Again, we must do everything we can to prevent Americans from being illegally detained abroad.

Mr. Speaker, again, I thank Mr. Wilson from South Carolina for introducing this bill. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 5826, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise concerning my votes on H.R. 6603 and H.R. 5826 on April 16, 2024.

With regard to H.R. 6603, I fully support the use of the Foreign Direct Product Rule to restrict Iran's ability to develop weapons technologies, especially technologies used by Iran for its April 2024 attack on Israel. However, H.R. 6603 would represent a counterproductive restriction of the flexibility that has enabled the Commerce Department to effectively restrict Iran's access to materials and technology that can be used to produce drones and missiles. While I have no concerns about expanding the application of the Foreign Direct Product Rule to include the additional categories enumerated within the bill, I believe this expansion must be done in coordination with U.S. partners to avoid creating an outcome that hurts our allies without addressing Iranian proliferation. This bill would threaten relationships with key partners, including the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and others that have allowed the United States to effectively counter malign actions by the Iranian government and I voted no as a result.

With regard to H.R. 5826, I voted no out of concern that Section 8 of the bill could result in reciprocal actions from Iran to restrict the travel of Iranians to the United States--preventing asylum-seekers and others from escaping Iran's authoritarian government. The bill would additionally prevent thousands of Iranian Americans from being able to visit family in Iran and similarly restrict visas by journalists, educators, and other visitors who contribute to positive connections between the people of Iran and the outside world. I also oppose provisions in Section 6 of H.R. 5826 that would break with decades of diplomatic precedent and undermine U.S. capacity to negotiate with Iran by restricting how Iranian government officials can travel to the United States to attend meetings at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City.

Mr. Speaker, I was unable to cast my vote for Roll Call Votes Nos. 124 through 134. Had I been present, I would have voted: ``Nay'' on Roll Call Vote No. 124, Motion on Ordering the Previous Question on H. Res. 1149; ``No'' on Roll Call Vote No. 125, H. Res. 1149; ``Yea'' on Roll Call Vote No. 126, H.R. 6245; ``Yea'' on Roll Call Vote No. 127, H.R. 6015; ``Yea'' on Roll Call Vote No. 128, H.R. 5917; ``Yea'' on Roll Call Vote No. 129, H.R. 4681; ``Yea'' on Roll Call Vote No. 130, H.R. 6603; ``Yea'' on Roll Call Vote No. 131, H.R. 5826; ``Yea'' on Roll Call Vote No. 132, H.R. 3033; ``Yea'' on Roll Call Vote No. 133, H. Res. 288; and ``Yea'' on Roll Call Vote No. 134, H. Res. 883.