Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Boehner], the chairman of our House Republican Conference.

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the Iran Oil Sanctions Act of 1996. This legislation is the result of much hard work and compromise between the Committee on International Relations and the Committee on Ways and Means. I really want to commend my colleagues for bringing forward this very important piece of legislation.

The bill is necessary to erode Iran's and Libya's ability to finance international terrorism in chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons development programs. By targeting these countries' primary moneymaking industries, this legislation strikes at the heart of Iran's and Libya's efforts to undermine the Middle East peach process and to terrorize its peaceful neighbors.

This bill sends a clear message to these countries that the United States will not tolerate the flouting of international law and international norms of behavior. At the same time, it shows strong leadership to our allies and serves as an example to be followed.

I urge my colleagues to support this very important bill.

Mr. HAMILTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Maryland [Mr. Cardin].

(Mr. CARDIN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. CARDIN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished ranking member of the Committee on International Relations for yielding me this time and for the work that he has done in this area.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge all my colleagues to support the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act. This is a tough bill. It is a bill that I think has been made smarter and tougher as a result of the negotiations that took place between the three committees that had jurisdiction on the bill: the Committee on International Relations, the Committee on Banking and Financial Affairs, and the Committee on Ways and Means. I am particularly pleased that we were able to strengthen the bill in a very important area. That is for a multinational approach to dealing with this issue.

Mr. Speaker, we offer a carrot-stick approach to our allies to assume responsibility as to the terrorist activities that Iran and Libya are engaged in, to enter into an international effort to isolate these countries. Make no mistake about it, the investments that go into Iranian infrastructure for oil finance the money that are being used for terrorist activities. The President, the Secretary of State, the director of the CIA, have all identified Iran as the world's leading sponsor of international terrorism. This bill is directly aimed at dealing with that fact, it is indisputable, to dry up the dollars supporting international terrorist activities. That is in the security interests of the United States.

The families of the victims of PanAmerican 103 keep us focused on the continued treachery of Libya. We must continue to strengthen the enforcement of sanctions against Libya as approved by the United Nations. All this bill does is to make it clear that we are going to isolate those two countries. It preserves the leadership of the United States in making it clear to countries that harbor terrorists that we will not allow them to participate in the international marketplace and to secure international investments. That is what this stands for.

We, before, provided the leadership to the world in the actions that we did in the former Soviet Union. This is a bill that is worthy of the entire support of this membership and I urge Members to vote for it.

Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Zimmer].

Mr. ZIMMER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding time to me, and I thank the gentleman from New York and the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Archer] for bringing this important bill before us today.

Mr. Speaker, I am a cosponsor of the Iran and Libya Oil Sanctions Act. I strongly urge Congress to pass it, and the President to sign it into law swiftly. Terrorism has emerged in the wake of the cold war as the leading threat to democracy and world security. Innocent men, women, and children have been brutally murdered by vicious acts of violence of those who prefer destruction to peace. In many cases, this terrorism has been sponsored not by private fringe groups but by national governments. I strongly believe the United States should be as bold in isolating and weakening these governments as they are in the support that they lend to the destruction of innocents.

The bill is necessary to erode Iran's and Libya's ability to finance international terrorism in chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons development programs. By targeting these countries' primary moneymaking industries, this legislation strikes at the heart of Iran's and Libya's efforts to undermine the Middle East peace process and to terrorize its peaceful neighbors.

This bill sends a clear message to these countries that the United States will not tolerate the flouting of international law and international norms of behavior. At the same time, it shows strong leadership to our allies and serves as an example to be followed. I urge my colleagues to support this very important bill.

Mr. HAMILTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from California [Ms. Pelosi].

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding time to me, and I commend him and the gentleman from New York [Mr. Gilman], as well as the leadership of the Committee on Ways and Means and everyone else who had anything to do with bringing this to the floor. I think it is a very important piece of legislation.

Mr. Speaker, we must have zero tolerance for terrorism. I think this bill sends a very strong message that we are serious about that. I support the bill, as I said, and I am particularly pleased about the requirement in the bill called Presidential reports. It says:

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The bill requires the President to report periodically to Congress on efforts to persuade other countries to pressure Iran to cease weapons of mass destruction programs, support of international terrorism, and on attempts to urge Iran's and it goes on for some other consideration about diplomats.

It also only grants the President a waiver if the President certifies to Congress that Iran has ceased its efforts to develop and acquire a nuclear explosive device, chemical or biological weapons, or ballistic missiles or missile technology, and has been removed from the countries determined under the Export Administration Act of having supported international terrorism.

I call this to the attention of our colleagues, Mr. Speaker, because it seems to me this is a very important step to take. This requirement on the President is an important one. At the same time, though, as we are putting out these requirements, indeed even the same day, the Committee on Ways and Means is moving on China MFN. These two issues are not connected, except in one way: China is one of the leading suppliers of technology for nuclear, chemical, and missile weaponry, weapons of mass destruction.

So if our purpose in this legislation is to reduce terrorism, if our purpose in this legislation is to say that the President may only waive this bill when Iran stops developing nuclear and chemical, biological, and the list goes on, ballistic and other explosive devices, then why do we not get to the source and take action against those countries, China being leading among them, that are supplying Iran with that technology? The sanctions should be at the source as well as with Iran, who deserves them.

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