Heck votes “NO” on Iran Deal Approval Bill

(Greg Lemon) – WASHINGTON – Congressman Joe Heck (NV-03), on September 11, 2015, voted against H.R. 3461, a bill to Approve the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, signed at Vienna on July 14, 2015, relating to the nuclear program of Iran.

Rep. Heck spoke on the House floor in opposition to the Iran nuclear deal, urging his colleagues to reject the deal approval legislation.

“While the agreement allows for 24/7 monitoring of declared sites, it includes a provision that gives Iran up to 24 days to grant inspectors access to undeclared facilities

“According to former IAEA officials this greatly increases the probability that nefarious nuclear activities could escape detection.

“While this verification scheme is already embarrassingly weak, it gets worse when one considers the two secret side deals revealed in July that prevent inspection of the Parchin military complex and allow Iran to ignore requirements to come clean on past weapons-related activity.

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“The fact is that despite the claims of the administration, this agreement is not built on verification, it is built on trust.

“It requires us to trust a regime that is largest exporter of terrorism in the world, has already violated the interim nuclear agreement, and whose Supreme leader just today stated that Israel will not exist in 25 years.

“Mr. Speaker, this is a bad deal and I urge my colleagues to reject it.”

BACKGROUND

Prior to the release of the Iran nuclear deal Congressman Heck laid out what a strong deal with Iran would look like. The main components of such a deal are:

* An acceptable deal between the West and Iran must allow for inspection of known Iranian nuclear sites, suspected nuclear sites, and military facilities.

* Iran must finally come clean about previous weaponization efforts.

* An acceptable deal must also block Iran’s quest to develop nuclear weapons for decades to come.

* Iran must dismantle any nuclear weapons-related infrastructure.

* Relief from economic sanctions should come gradually and only if Iran complies with all of these various obligations.

Congressman Joe Heck represents Nevada’s Third Congressional District in the House of Representatives. He serves on the House Armed Services Committee, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.