In the News

As the growing scourge of terrorism threatens innocent people around the globe, it is maddening that some nations not only embrace the sponsors of terrorism, but fuel their evil with financial support. The United States must always stand against this madness. 

As recently as last year, however, the Obama administration sent $1.7 billion to Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, and offered no realistic explanation for the payment or information on its recipients.

What we do know is the source of those funds: our precious taxpayer dollars. 

The money for Iran was withdrawn from our federal Judgment Fund, which was created decades ago to pay damages in a timely manner to parties legitimately harmed by our government. It was not created as a political tool to be used by an Executive Branch at odds with the Congress.

Yet, as with most things left unchecked in government, the Judgment Fund has mushroomed beyond the scope of its original purpose.

To understand just how political this $1.7 billion payment to Iran was, one needs only to examine the context.

According to the Obama administration, the payment was simply to settle a decades-old dispute, and the fact that it coincided with Iran’s decision to sign on to a nuclear agreement with the U.S. was purely coincidental.

For 30 years, presidents from both parties refused to send this money to Iran—but President Obama suddenly changed this policy. His stated reason: to save us from additional interest that may accrue on the supposed debt.

But the reality of the situation at that time tells a different story. The Obama administration badly needed a “win,” and arranged for the release of the now infamous U.S. soldier, Robert Bowdrie "Bowe" Bergdahl, who had been captured after deserting his station and imprisoned by the Taliban-aligned Haqqani network for almost five years.

At nearly the exact time of Bergdahl’s release, an initial cash payment in the amount of $400 million was loaded onto an unmarked plane headed to Tehran. No one can argue this was a mere coincidence, because administration officials frankly admitted the cash was used as leverage in Bergdahl’s release—a decision that broke America’s longstanding policy against negotiating with terrorists, much less offering ransom for prisoners.

Equally troubling is that the Judgment Fund was used as a means of circumventing the constitutional authority of Congress, which holds the power of the purse for good reason. The Obama administration knew its ransom payment would never have been approved, and public outrage would have made it nearly impossible to complete the transaction.

Perhaps that is why, even now, we have little to no information on exactly who received this money or what Iran might be using it for today.

This lack of transparency is precisely what H.R. 1096, the Judgment Fund Transparency Act, seeks to address. It requires the Treasury Department to publicly disclose details regarding the method of payment, currency used and the financial institution of any foreign state that receives our funds.

An amendment I brought goes even further by adding two important provisions.

First, we require public disclosures on all expenditures from the Judgment Fund to be posted annually on the Treasury’s websites so the information is readily available to taxpayers.

Second, we expressly prohibit any payment from the Judgment Fund to a state sponsor of terrorism, as those nations—such as Iran, Syria and Sudan—are identified by the State Department. The new prohibition also extends to any terrorist organization identified by the State Department using criteria in section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act.Currently, 60 nefarious groups are on the list.

Many are surprised to learn these common sense provisions were not already a part of our law, since they clearly represent the interests and the intent of the American people. But when it comes to federal statutes, specific language is better than mere intent and is sometimes necessary to prevent an abuse or misinterpretation of the law.

There is no question that if proper checks and balances are not established now, the Judgment Fund will remain vulnerable to use for political purposes again in the future.  

The American people deserve to know how much of their hard-earned tax dollars are being spent, and to whom and for what they are being distributed.