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Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) joined his colleagues Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and U.S. Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI) in introducing the Blocking Iranian Illicit Finance Act. The bill seeks to counter the Iranian regime’s money laundering and financing of terrorism, protect the global financial system from Iranian illicit finance, and impose maximum financial pressure on Iran.
 
Tom Cotton (R-AR.), Thom Tillis (R-SC), Cory Gardner (R-CO), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Todd Young (R-IN), and Representatives Doug Lamborn (R-CO), Jim Banks (R-IN), Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Jacki Walorski (R-IN), Peter King (R-NY), and Don Bacon (R-NE) also joined as original cosponsors of the bill.
 
“This important legislation would empower the United States and our like-minded allies to do more to end the Iranian government’s ability to illicitly finance its dangerous efforts to sponsor terrorism and militancy, to advance its nuclear and missile programs, to egregiously abuse human rights in Iran and abroad, and to suppress the Iranian people’s aspirations for self-determination,” Senator Rubio said.  “I look forward to working with fellow lawmakers and the Administration to enact this legislation and fully implement the maximum pressure against the regime in Tehran.”
 
“The Obama Iran nuclear deal gifted the Ayatollahs with hundreds of billions of dollars and reconnected them to the global financial system, which they used launder even more money and fund even more terrorism” Senator Cruz said. “Undoing that damage requires imposing maximum pressure against the Iranian regime. President Trump was absolutely right when he began that process by withdrawing from the nuclear deal. Effectively disconnecting Iran from the global financial system, which this bill does, is a necessary next step. I look forward to working more with the administration and my Congressional colleagues to ensure this bill becomes law during the next Congress.”
 
“Withdrawing from the JCPOA was only the first step in ratcheting up pressure on the Iranian regime. We now have an important window to impose maximum economic pressure and degrade the Iranian regime’s ability to export violence across the region. This legislation does exactly that by effectively cutting Iran off from the international financial community. Its message is clear: Iran must pay a steep price for its aggressive and destabilizing behavior, and the United States will never tolerate its pursuit of nuclear weapons,” Representative Gallagher said.