Jones Votes to Sanction Iran and North Korea | Eastern NC Now

News Release:

    WASHINGTON, DC - This week, Congressman Walter B. Jones (NC-3) voted for H.R. 1698, the Iran Ballistic Missiles and International Sanctions Enforcement Act, and H.R. 3898, the Impeding North Korea's Access to Finance Act of 2017. The bills would impose sanctions on Iran and North Korea in an effort to rein in their nuclear weapons programs. H.R. 1698 passed the House with a vote of 232-191, and H.R. 3898 passed the House with a vote of 228-187. The bills now go to the Senate for further consideration.

    "Iran and North Korea must recognize that continuing their march toward nuclear weapons will have consequences," said Congressman Jones.

    Background

    Specifically, H.R. 1698 would require:

• The President to report to Congress on the foreign and domestic supply chain in Iran that supports its ballistic missile program;
• The President to submit to Congress a determination of whether any Iranian ballistic missile test violates U.N. Security Council Resolution 2231;
• The President to impose sanctions against: (1) Iranian government agencies involved in ballistic missile development; (2) foreign entities that supply material for, or otherwise facilitate or finance such efforts; (3) foreign persons or foreign government agencies that import, export, or re-export prohibited arms or related material to or from Iran; and (4) foreign persons or entities that transfer goods or technologies contributing to Iran's ability to acquire or develop ballistic missiles, including launch technology, and destabilizing numbers and types of advanced conventional weapons;
• The President to investigate potential violations of these sanctions and report to Congress regarding credible information about Iran's violations of arms restrictions.

    Similarly, H.R. 3898 would:

• (1) require the Secretary of the Treasury to prohibit, or impose strict conditions on, correspondent or payable-through accounts held in the U.S. by foreign financial institutions that knowingly deal with North Korea; (2) prohibit U.S. financial institutions, and persons owned or controlled by such institutions, from knowingly engaging in transaction benefitting North Korea; (3) require the U.S. to oppose loans by the international financial institutions (i.e. IMF and multilateral development banks) for countries that knowingly fail to prevent the provision of financial services to North Korea, as well as deny Export-Import Bank assistance for exports to North Korea; (4) require regular Treasury updates on sanctions implementation and the Department's efforts to strengthen the capacity of financial institutions and foreign governments to prevent financing for North Korea; and (5) strengthen IMF technical assistance to improve countries' efforts in anti-money laundering and combatting the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT).

    For additional information, please contact Allison Tucker in Congressman Jones' office at (202) 225-3415 or allison.tucker@mail.house.gov.