SW Arkansas Times

Today, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass H.R. 6046 and H.R. 5947, legislation cosponsored by Congressman Bruce Westerman (AR-04) to comprehensively address the threat posed by Iran. Westerman released a statement in support of the bills, saying, "Iran is one of the world’s foremost sponsors of terrorism. The Obama Administration set an unruly precedent of appeasing Iran that the Biden Administration has compounded. This weakness has emboldened Iran to continue launching unjustified attacks against Israel, our greatest ally in the Middle East, just as we saw this past weekend. House Republicans acted swiftly this week with a slate of bills to stand with Israel and respond to Iran’s unprecedented attacks. I was proud to support these measures to further block Iran’s ability to continue financing these heinous attacks."

The background to these bills includes the Biden Administration's decision in 2021 to remove the Iran-backed Houthis’ designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT), leading to an increase in terrorist activities by the Houthis, such as missile and drone attacks against global shipping.

H.R. 6046, one of the bills passed, would mandate the reimposition of the FTO and SDGT designations on the Houthis. Another bill, H.R. 5947, aims to eliminate sanction waivers and licenses related to Iran. Westerman highlighted the urgency of these actions, stating, "Since President Biden took office, the Biden Administration has used certain waivers and licenses related to Iran to transfer $6 billion in Iranian funds to restricted accounts in Qatar and $10 billion in payments from Iraq. The Iranian regime is highly skilled in evasion, cutting corners, and blurring lines to hide the true use of these funds, and the Biden Administration is compliant and complicit in these efforts. Any funding to Iran, even if nominally in a restricted account, frees up more money for Iran to use on malign activities. Iran is too potent a threat to the United States and our partners to allow these waivers to exist any longer."