Ron DeSantis

Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chairman, this amendment is a simple limitation amendment. No funds made available by this act may be used to purchase heavy water from the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Why are we doing this? Iran is the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism, fomenting discord all across the Middle East, funding Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon while supporting the Houthis in Yemen.

Iran provided deadly, military-grade explosives to militias in Iraq, killing hundreds of American servicemembers during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Iran has never been held accountable for that. They still have major control over portions of Iraq, and the Shiite militias they back are running rampant.

Furthermore, we know that Iran is working to be the key outside player in Syria in an effort to expand control from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea.

As you know, the JCPOA was effectively an Obama executive agreement, never ratified by Congress or enacted into law. It was sold using lies and propaganda, and it provided Iran with an economic lifeline. It provided Iran with $150 billion in sanctions relief and even airlifted $1.7 billion in cold, hard cash to Tehran.

Just yesterday, we learned that the Obama administration secretly granted a license authorizing the conversion of Iranian assets worth billions of U.S. dollars using the U.S. financial system despite repeated assurances to the public and Congress that Iran would not be granted access to the U.S. financial system.

The Obama administration continually offered gratuitous concessions to Iran that went beyond even the unilateral concessions contained in the Iran deal.

And that is where this heavy water limitation amendment comes in. The Obama administration was using tax dollars to purchase heavy water from Iran. That is money over and above what the Iran deal provided. And that damage has been significant.

Now, President Trump has withdrawn the U.S. from the JCPOA. My amendment, though, is simple. We just should not use tax dollars to subsidize Iran's nuclear activities through the purchase of heavy water.

I don't think the President would want to do that, but I think it is important that we continue with this in

law, which we have had now for over a year. I think it will ensure that the mistakes of the past are not repeated.

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

Mr. Chairman, I am prepared to close.

I just urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on the amendment. It has been in law before. We have passed it out of this House 2 years in a row. We should do it again.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to Lieutenant Caleb King, a naval aviator and Port Orange, Florida, native who died when his F/A-18 Super Hornet crashed while training onboard Naval Air Station Boca Chica in Key West, Florida.

Caleb King was a standout football player at Warner Christian Academy in South Daytona. He was recruited to play football at a number of colleges but chose to combine college football with service to our country by attending the U.S. Naval Academy, and as a linebacker, he was a key component of successful Navy teams that played in two bowl games and, most importantly, went 4-0 against Army.

After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy, Caleb completed extensive training to become a naval aviator and was eventually assigned to Strike Fighter Attack Squadron 213 based in Virginia Beach. Our fighter jets represent the tip of the sphere of America's offensive air capabilities, and the aviators assigned to these units are some of the best sailors in the fleet, so it is not surprising that someone like Caleb would find himself at VFA-213.

While we don't know yet the reason for the crash, suffice it to say that officers like Caleb put their lives on the line every day. The training they do is inherently dangerous, and it is not for the faint of heart.

Caleb King was a big, strong, American patriot. He was an inspiration to those who knew him. He served our country with distinction and lived up to the Navy's ethos of honor, courage, and commitment.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the King family, particularly his wife, Victoria, and daughter, Rain.

America lost a promising naval flight officer last week in Key West. Lieutenant King dedicated his life to something bigger than himself: serving our Nation in uniform and risking his own life to do so. That is what we call a hero.

Mr. Speaker, in the private sector, if an employer is going to hire somebody, a lot of times they will do a Google search, they will check social media postings to try to learn a little bit more about this prospective employee.

It may be hard to believe, but the Federal Government often fails to conduct a simple internet search on individuals before they are trusted with a security clearance.

Publicly available social media is one of the best ways to understand an individual's interests and intentions, but our investigatory process still focuses on interviewing the applicant's family, friends, and neighbors. For over a decade, various agencies, including the Office of Personnel Management, have conducted studies and pilot programs to assess the effectiveness of social media checks in security clearance investigations. Congress has not been provided those results.

What this bill will do is it will require these agencies to identify best practices so that we can use this going forward to make sure that the people who are employed by this government, armed with a security clearance, who have access to sensitive information that puts the security of the country at risk, that these are people whom we want to have there and they are not folks who have ulterior designs.

A lot of times it is going to be much more informative to look at their publicly available writings than to talk to somebody who may have lived next door to them in an apartment 10 years ago.

I think that this bill is overdue.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Massachusetts (Mr. Lynch) for cosponsoring it for me, and I am proud to be here today as the sponsor. I think this should have bipartisan support. I think it will give us some good answers and we can move forward and modernize this process.