Republicans prepare severe sanctions package to ‘gut’ Iran, punish Khamenei

By locking in these initiatives legislatively, any future administration would have a much more difficult time easing economic pressure on Tehran.

By Adam Kredo, The Washington Free Beacon

US Congressional Republicans are mounting an effort to codify President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign on Tehran via a 10-bill legislative package that would sanction Tehran’s leadership, cut off its access to cash, and strangle the regime’s regional terror proxies, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.

The campaign includes “the toughest Iran sanctions package ever proposed by Congress,” according to the Republican Study Committee (RSC), the House’s largest GOP caucus, which is leading the effort.

Together, according to an RSC fact sheet, the bills “would gut Iran’s ability to fund terrorism throughout the region, sanction the Supreme Leader of Iran,” and compel future presidents to fully “enforce sanctions on Iran’s oil sales,” which hit historic highs under the Biden administration.

While the Trump administration has already issued a slew of executive orders reinstating intense economic pressure on Tehran, a future administration could easily undo them in the same way former president Joe Biden rolled back the tough Iran sanctions imposed during Trump’s first term in office.

By locking in these initiatives legislatively, any future administration would have a much more difficult time easing economic pressure on Tehran.

Rep. August Pfluger (R., Texas), the RSC’s chairman, told the Free Beacon he is building support for the effort with fellow House Republican leaders and hopes to bring the package to a vote in the near future. Trump’s team, he said, backs all of the bills included in the package.

“We have an extreme sense of urgency,” Pfluger said in an interview. “There’s no daylight in between what leadership ideologically views as the right thing to do and what we have put forward.”

As Iran marches closer to a nuclear weapon and bucks the Trump administration’s effort to restart diplomacy, the package can serve as a tool to increase pressure on Tehran’s hardline leadership, Pfluger said.

The bills appear to have a good path to passage in the House. In the Senate, the GOP’s razor-thin majority, paired with the upper chamber’s 60-vote threshold, makes approval more difficult.

Still, Pfluger and others said talks are underway with prospective Senate sponsors, including Ted Cruz (R., Texas), Tom Cotton (R., Ark.), and Jim Banks (R., Ind.), himself a former RSC chairman.

A senior congressional aide familiar with discussions said the Iranian regime intends to “wait out” Trump’s term in office with the hopes that a future Democratic administration once again reverses pressure.

“The mullahs still think they can wait out American pressure, and so they’re refusing to dismantle their nuclear program the way Trump is demanding,” the source said.

“By locking in maximum pressure, Republicans are signaling that the Iranian regime needs to come to the table or face crippling pressure indefinitely.”

The central piece of legislation in the sanctions package is Rep. Zach Nunn’s (R., Iowa) Maximum Pressure Act. The bill mirrors Trump’s February executive order reestablishing sanctions on Iran, making them the law of the land.

“Iran’s direct assaults on global security and American leadership will no longer go unanswered,” Nunn, who chairs the RSC’s national security task force, said in a statement.

The Maximum Pressure Act is bolstered by a second Pfluger-led bill that would freeze Iran’s global access to cash and prevent any future president from issuing sanctions waivers, the primary method used by Biden to skirt the law during his time in office.

The Biden administration repeatedly issued sanctions waivers that provided Iran with access to upwards of $10 billion in backed electricity payments owed by Iraq.

Pfluger introduced the same bill during the House’s last session, and it passed by a vote of 259 to 160. It is expected to garner similar support this time around.

Other bills target Iran’s lucrative energy sector, which has helped keep the hardline regime afloat and money flowing to its terror proxies, including Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Pfluger’s No Iranian Energy Act would sanction “the importation of Iranian natural gas to Iraq,” zeroing out another prime revenue stream.

Additional measures would codify the Trump administration’s executive order designating the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization and ensure that “a future Democrat administration cannot provide sanctions relief until Iran stops supporting terrorist activity,” according to information about the effort provided by the RSC.