from Congressman Mark Kirk
WASHINGTON – As the House and Senate continue to negotiate with the Administration over a final Iran Refined Petroleum Act bill, U.S. Reps. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Ron Klein (D-Fla.) are circulating a letter to House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman (D-Calif.) and Ranking Member Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) urging them to include H.R. 4807, the Iran Sanctions Enhancement Act, as part of the final package.
The addition of H.R. 4807 would ensure the President’s enforcement of the Iran Sanctions Act and the Iran Refined Petroleum Act by requiring the Government Accountability Office to identify violating entities and mandate Presidential action within 45 days of such identification. The Iran Sanctions Act has never been enforced since its enactment in 1996.
A copy of the letter appears below.
March xx, 2010
Dear Chairman Berman and Ranking Member Ros-Lehtinen,
We appreciate your efforts to reconcile the respective versions of Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act (IRPSA), a critical measure to enhance the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996 (ISA). Since Iran imports 40 percent of its gasoline, this legislation gives the Administration an important tool to pressure the Iranian regime to give up its pursuit of nuclear weapons, cease its human rights abuses, and stop its sponsorship of terror around the world. As President Obama reiterated during his State of the Union address, if Iranian leaders “continue to ignore their international obligations”, they should “face growing consequences.”
As you know, no entity has ever been held accountable under the ISA, neither under Republican nor Democratic administrations. Meanwhile, international businesses have continued to undermine US efforts to isolate the Iranian regime.
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) has found that over 20 companies are likely in violation of the ISA. In October 2009, fifty members of Congress wrote to the Administration, requesting an investigation of potential ISA violators identified by CRS. Despite a pledge to conduct such an investigation within 45 days and subsequently acknowledging that some entities were “problematic”, the Administration still has not provided Congress with the full results of its investigation.
To further aid the sanctions efforts against the Iranian regime, we have introduced the Iranian Sanctions Enhancement Act (H.R. 4807). We urge you to include language from H.R. 4807 in the final IRPSA bill in order to advance full enforcement of the ISA.
The Iran Sanctions Enhancement Act would strengthen the oversight and enforcement provisions of IRPSA by:
Requiring the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to regularly publish a list of potential ISA violators.
Mandating that the President treat the information provided by GAO as “credible” in order to launch an immediate investigation of ISA violators.
Requiring the President to complete an investigation within 45 days and notify Congress of entities determined to be in violation.
While we welcome the changes that IRPSA makes to the ISA in requiring the Administration to initiate an ISA investigation and determine violators within 180 days, we believe that the inclusion into IRPSA of the 45-day timeframe, as stipulated by the Iran Sanctions Enhancement Act, will reflect the growing urgency of the challenge posed by the Iranian regime and more appropriately ensure that the executive branch adheres to its commitments to Congress. Furthermore, we expect the information provided on a regular basis by the nonpartisan GAO will greatly aid the Administration’s efforts to determine violators of US law.
We are grateful for your consideration of this request.
Sincerely,
