Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., is the latest lawmaker to try to ban cash payments to Iran, such as the one President Obama made in January, and has proposed a narrow bill that he hopes can win Democratic support.
Perdue wants to ban future presidents from making cash payments to any designated state-sponsor of terrorism. It’s a response to news that Obama’s team agreed to make cash payments to Iran on a long-standing weapons deal dispute, and its admission that it used the payment as “leverage” to secure the release of American hostages.
“That’s why it is unbelievable this legislation is even necessary,” Perdue said. “Untraceable cash payments should not be going to nations supporting terrorism or other nefarious activities — period.”
Perdue’s bill borrows from legislation that has already passed the House, but he focuses solely on the issue of cash payments in order to avoid Democratic objections.
“We took a different route because we wanted to focus narrowly and explicitly on closing this serious loophole,” a Perdue aide told the Washington Examiner. “The House bill has a number of other provisions related to Iran and the judgment fund, which we support fully. Given the difficulty of getting a vote on anything Iran-related in the Senate, we thought this approach may get swifter consideration.”
Congress is on recess until after the election, however, meaning lawmakers won’t have the opportunity to vote on the proposal until the year-end spending talks, at the earliest. “It is our job to safeguard Americans’ tax dollars and fund the government’s primary responsibilities like providing for the national defense,” Perdue said. “That’s why it is unbelievable this legislation is even necessary.”
