As I’ve said many times before, Iran cannot be trusted. Iran is the leading state sponsor of terrorism around the globe. They have repeatedly and boldly defied United Nations sanctions against them to continue developing their dangerous weapons program. They have demonstrated, time and again, that they are not afraid to threaten us or our allies in the region. In addition, the regime leaders have consistently violated their people’s basic human rights.
As a member of the Bipartisan Task Force to Investigate Terrorism Financing, I have concentrated on stopping terror organizations, like the Iranian regime, by finding ways to expose and ultimately dismantle their financial lifeblood.
As we all know by now, the President has gone forward with a dangerous Iran deal and has, as a result, opened up billions of dollars of assets for this regime to use at their disposal. While the President’s commitment to this deal is reckless and hopelessly ill-advised, now that he has moved forward, we should do everything we can to make sure that those assets are accounted for and transparent to the international community.
That is why I introduced the Iranian Leadership Asset Transparency Act. The goal of this bill is to allow the world to see how the top leadership in Iran facilitates human rights abuse through funding pilfered from the Iranian people. It will allow financial institutions to see in public form the type of assets associated with these individuals and hopefully better focus anti-money laundering efforts.
This bill will publicize the assets associated with members of Iran’s tyrannical government leadership, including the Supreme Leader of Iran, Members of the Council of Guardians, Members of the Expediency Council and the top military leaders.
Under my bill, the Department of the Treasury would submit a report to Congress on the assets under control, how the assets were acquired and how they are used by these top political and military leaders. The report would be submitted to Congress and available on the Treasury’s website in English as well as the three main languages used in Iran, which include Farsi, Arabic, and Azeri.
I am very proud that this bill is currently moving through the House. Earlier this summer, the bill passed out of the House Financial Services Committee with bipartisan support, demonstrating how important it is for there to be financial transparency for terror organizations like the Iranian regime.
Our national security should not be a partisan issue. I believe it’s important that we combat terrorism at its roots and do everything we can to prevent it from coming to our shores. That means stopping a dangerous Iran from continuing to expand its weapons programs, commit human rights violations, and threaten free, democratic nations around the world.
