Washington, D.C. – House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (CA-23) released the following statement on House passage of H.R. 5931, the Prohibiting Future Ransom Payments to Iran Act:
“The Obama Administration paid cash ransom to Iran for American hostages. There’s no other way to describe sending a planeload of unmarked bills to Iran and holding the plane on the tarmac until hostages were released. That money is untraceable. It’s extremely likely that Iran, as the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world, would funnel that money to its terrorist proxies abroad. And the payment only incentivizes Iran to take even more hostages—something Iran has already done several times since the ransom was paid.
“These cash payments to Iran undermine American security for the contemptible goal of propping up a failed nuclear deal that undermines global security. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce’s (CA-39) bill puts an end to this, prohibiting all cash payments to Iran, no matter how the Administration chooses to redefine them.”