(Washington, D.C.)  Congresswoman Cathy McMorris (WA-05) today voted in favor of H.R. 282, the Iran Freedom Support Act. McMorris is a cosponsor of this bill that holds the current regime in Iran accountable for its threatening behavior and to support a transition to democracy in Iran.

“One of my top priorities is to ensure our national security,” said McMorris. “Iran's desire to obtain materials to produce nuclear weapons is an immense security concern to Middle East stability, as well as to the United States and its allies in the region. I support a policy of cooperative and multilateral diplomacy and believe we must keep working with Great Britain, France, Germany and Russia to stop Iran’s nuclear proliferation. Supporting freedom in Iran is an important component in our global effort against terrorism.”

The bill will keep United States sanctions, controls, and regulations relating to weapons of mass destruction with respect to Iran in effect until the President certifies that Iran has permanently and verifiably dismantled its weapons of mass destruction programs.

A copy of McMorris’ floor statement on this bill is below:

Extension of Remarks
H.R. 242, the Iran Freedom Support Act
April 26, 2006

Mr. Speaker I rise today in support of H.R. 282, the Iran Freedom Support Act. I applaud this bi-partisan effort by Congress to address the increasing threat posed to our country and world by Iran.

Many defense experts have predicted that we face no greater threat from a single country than from Iran. Iran’s leaders, including Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have continuously called for the destruction of Israel, rejected overtures from the world community, including the United Nations, supported international terrorism, and continued to advance their nuclear program with the announcement on April 11 that Iran had successfully enriched fuel-grade uranium.

All of these actions are unacceptable. We would be remiss to ignore a country that perilously threatens our allies and the security of the world while simultaneously seeking to advance its unsupervised nuclear capabilities. We must not allow Iran to bully the world or our allies or fail to show Iran that we will take their irresponsible and careless behavior seriously.

H.R. 282 will help support democracy while taking a firm stance against the radical and reckless leaders of Iran and those that would support them. At this time, supporting democracy in Iran is an important ingredient to resolving this situation peacefully. One of my top priorities in Congress is to ensure our national security, and I support H.R. 282 as an important step in combating the rising risk of Iran.