BANKING COMMITTEE APPROVES DODD-SHELBY IRAN SANCTIONS BILL
October 29, 2009
WASHINGTON – Today the Senate Banking Committee unanimously approved the Dodd-Shelby Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act.
“Earlier this year, I believe that all of us were deeply troubled to see the Iranian regime violently punishing its own citizens for calling for fair and open elections in their nation. And we have watched with growing concern the illicit nuclear activities of this troubled regime, including their deception about the previously secret enrichment facility at Qum,” said Chris Dodd (D-CT), Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. “And so today, Senator Shelby and I have worked to put together comprehensive legislation dealing with Iran sanctions.”
“Our approach acknowledges the gross human rights abuses that Iran’s people suffer at the hands of Iran’s security forces – with the approval of its political leadership – and the widening chasm that has opened between the regime and the people of Iran.”
The bill will:
· expand the Iran Sanctions Act to cover a range of financial institutions and businesses and extend sanctions to oil and gas pipelines and tankers;
· impose new sanctions on entities involved in exporting certain refined petroleum products to Iran or building Iran’s domestic refining capacity;
· impose a broad ban on direct imports from Iran to the US and exports from the US to Iran, exempting food and medicines;
· require the Administration freeze the assets of Iranians, including Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, who are active in weapons proliferation or terrorism;
· require the President to determine and report to Congress if investments in Iran’s energy sector are eligible for sanctions;
· enable Americans to divest from energy firms doing business with the Iranian regime;
· strengthen export controls to stop the illegal black market export of sensitive technology to Iran through other countries and impose tough new licensing requirements on those who refuse to cooperate; and
· prohibit the U.S. government from purchasing goods from firms that do business in Iran’s energy sector, or that provide sensitive communications technology to monitor, jam or otherwise disrupt communications among Iranians, or between the Iranian people and the outside world.
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Below is Chairman Dodd’s Statement as prepared for delivery and a summary of the bill....
http://banking.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Newsroom.PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=a21e0a54-a82c-92ac-3f31-135fa3afe5b7