{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://moolenaar.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/moolenaar-supports-bill-stop-iran-accessing-funds", "Moolenaar Supports Bill to Stop Iran From Accessing Funds", "2023-10-12", "2023", "2023-10", "Republican", "House", "MI", "John R. Moolenaar", "M001194", "moolenaar.house.gov", "moolenaar", "https://moolenaar.house.gov/media-center/press-releases", "scraper", "Dear President Biden:\n\nRecent reports of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps\u2019 (IRGC) involvement in planning and giving the \u201cfinal go-ahead\u201d for Hamas\u2019s terrorist war on Israel demands an immediate response. Left unaddressed, the Iranian regime\u2019s continued support for terrorist groups and attempts to wipe Israel off the map will only grow more brazen and more destabilizing for the region.\n\nWhile Secretary Blinken stated that your administration \u201c[has] not seen evidence that Iran directed or was behind this particular attack,\u201d senior Hamas and Hezbollah officials claimed that IRGC officers have been working with Hamas since August to prepare for air, land, and sea invasions of Israel. This, combined with years of Iran providing weapons and training, enabled Hamas to launch thousands of rockets at Israeli civilian targets and invade communities, murdering and maiming hundreds of innocent people, including at least 11 Americans.\n\nYour administration recently released $6 billion in frozen funds to Iran in return for American hostages. Our concern\u2014a concern that has grown more acute in light of Iran\u2019s support for a terrorist war against Israel that already amounts to the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust\u2014is that the Iranian regime will use all available financial tools to further fuel this war against Israel, fund other terrorist proxies in the region such as Hezbollah who export Iran\u2019s genocidal terrorism, and accelerate Iran\u2019s nuclear build up. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi put it plainly that the funds would be used \u201cwherever we need it.\u201d\n\nIran\u2019s \u201cneed\u201d is Israel\u2019s destruction. Iran\u2019s supreme leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei stated: \u201cThis cancer [Israel] will definitely be eradicated, God willing, at the hands of the Palestinian people and the resistance forces throughout the region.\u201d Iran\u2019s United Nation\u2019s mission said the measures Hamas has taken \u2014 which include rape, kidnapping, torture, bombings, and murder \u2014 \u201cconstitute a wholly legitimate defense\u201d and that the regime \u201cemphatically stand[s] in unflinching support of Palestine.\u201d\n\nTo prevent Iran from accessing tens of billions of dollars to further subsidize this terrorism, we are requesting that you take immediate action, including but not limited to:\n\nFreezing the $6 billion provided in exchange for hostages, as well as the $10 billion in released funds based in Iraq, and withhold all waivers, general licenses and specific licenses for the use of use of such funds.6 In September, the State Department said, \u201cwe have the ability to freeze [the released funds] again if we need to.\u201d The events of this weekend demonstrate such a necessity.\n\nFully enforcing sanctions on Iranian oil exports to China, which have been unenforced for months, despite China\u2019s crude oil imports from Iran having set a new record.\n\nPrevent Iran from accessing any further Special Drawing Rights (SDR) from the International Monetary Fund, through which they have quick access to $6.7 billion, and blocking the further provision of funds to Iran in upcoming SDR packages.\n\nMr. President, this weekend you said: \u201cIn my administration, support for Israel\u2019s security is rock solid and unwavering.\u201d We share that sentiment and stand ready to work with you to back it up with strong, bipartisan legislative and executive action. Denying the terrorist-sponsoring regime in Tehran access to funds with which it can export chaos is an essential step in this direction.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T00:49:26Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://moolenaar.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/moolenaar-supports-bill-stop-iran-accessing-funds"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.055366989225149, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}