The Senate passed a new sanctions bill last year and the House passed one in May. Since then, House and Senate leaders have been ironing out the differences between the two bills to come up with one agreed text, which they did Monday night. Now it must go to the floor of both chambers for final passage with no opportunity for amendment.
The new bill plugs some loopholes and adds a raft of what appear to be minor sanctions. Provisions in the House- and Senate-passed bills that bothered the Administration have been watered down or removed.
One of the original bills would have sanctioned satellite firms that sell space to Iran. That bothered many people because it looked like an attack on freedom of communication. The compromise bill deletes all that and just urges satellite firms to cease providing services to Iran as long as it jams the satellite signals of some of its critics.
A section in the original Senate bill would have imposed sanctions on the shareholders in and leaders of SWIFT, the Belgium-based cooperative that expedites financial communications among banks, so long as SWIFT continues to deal with Iran’s Central Bank. SWIFT stopped helping other Iranian banks early this year, but did not cut off the Central Bank. That provision has been gutted in the final bill, however.
One former congressional staffer said, “Congress likes to pass sanctions bills. Whether or not they do anything is immaterial. Passage helps members go home and boast of how tough they are on Iran. And also, being tough on Iran is just about the only thing both Republicans and Democrats can agree on, so it helps to polish their bipartisan credentials when they pass such bills.”
The compromise bill looks tough in some provisions, such as the one that would sanction anyone who mines uranium with Iran. But UN sanctions already forbid any country from selling uranium to Iran.
The bill would impose sanctions on anyone who helps Iran reflag its vessels. The Obama Administration has been publicly criticizing mini-states that have done just that and will probably see this provision as a helpful tool.
In a provision meant to appeal to human rights groups, the bill would deny visas and freeze the assets of any firm or individual who supplies Iran with technology that could be used against dissidents, such as surveillance equipment, tear gas and rubber bullets.