{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://westerman.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/house-passes-westerman-cosponsored-bills-combat-iranian-aggression", "HOUSE PASSES WESTERMAN COSPONSORED BILLS TO COMBAT IRANIAN AGGRESSION", "2024-04-18", "2024", "2024-04", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Bruce Westerman", "W000821", "westerman.house.gov", "westerman", "https://westerman.house.gov/media-center/press-releases", "scraper", "Today, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass H.R. 6046 and H.R. 5947, legislation cosponsored by Congressman Bruce Westerman (AR-04) to comprehensively address the threat posed by Iran. Westerman released the following statement in support of the bills:\n\n\u201cIran is one of the world\u2019s foremost sponsors of terrorism. The Obama Administration set an unruly precedent of appeasing Iran that the Biden Administration has compounded. This weakness has emboldened Iran to continue launching unjustified attacks against Israel, our greatest ally in the Middle East, just as we saw this past weekend. House Republicans acted swiftly this week with a slate of bills to stand with Israel and respond to Iran\u2019s unprecedented attacks. I was proud to support these measures to further block Iran\u2019s ability to continue financing these heinous attacks.\u201d\n\nBACKGROUND:\n\nIn 2021, the Biden Administration wrongfully removed the Iran-backed Houthis\u2019 designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT). Since then, the Houthis have increased their terrorist activities, including their ongoing missile and drone attacks against global shipping.\n\nH.R. 6046 would mandate the reimposition of the FTO and SDGT designations on the Houthis.\n\nSince President Biden took office, the Biden Administration has used certain waivers and licenses related to Iran to transfer $6 billion in Iranian funds to restricted accounts in Qatar and $10 billion in payments from Iraq. The Iranian regime is highly skilled in evasion, cutting corners, and blurring lines to hide the true use of these funds, and the Biden Administration is compliant and complicit in these efforts. Any funding to Iran, even if nominally in a restricted account, frees up more money for Iran to use on malign activities. Iran is too potent a threat to the United States and our partners to allow these waivers to exist any longer.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T20:47:55Z"]], "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://westerman.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/house-passes-westerman-cosponsored-bills-combat-iranian-aggression"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.966276042163372, "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"}