WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-08) joined members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Wednesday in a hearing entitled “Confronting the Full Range of Iranian Threats.” The hearing, which comes days after the White House signaled the President would “decertify” the Iran nuclear deal and return the issue to Congress, focused on Tehran’s nuclear program as well as its continued support for terror groups like Hezbollah.

“The nuclear deal with Iran, the world’s largest state-sponsor of terror, was misguided from the start and was rammed through despite the bipartisan objection of Congress and an overwhelming majority of the American people. But even after its enactment there have been serious concerns regarding its enforcement, stipulations and side-deals,” said Fitzpatrick. “Today’s hearing only highlighted the concerns our military and regional allies, like Israel, have about Iran and their geopolitical objectives. Congress needs to work together to keep Americans safe from rogue regimes and terror supporters hellbent on doing us harm.”

“The shortcomings of the JCPOA are numerous and well-known. Suffice to say, the deal places Iran on a trajectory to become as intractable a challenge as North Korea is today – and very possibly worse,” said General Charles F. Wald, USAF (Ret.), former Deputy Commander of U.S. European Command. “Iran is already moving more directly and brazenly against U.S. interests and our allies. This stems in part from what the JCPOA does: it removes the aforementioned restrictions on Tehran’s power projection resources. Yet this also results from what the JCPOA represents: the weakening of U.S. credibility to push back as Iran aggravates the growing security vacuum in the Middle East.”

As part of the National Defense Authorization Act that passed the House in July, Fitzpatrick successfully added language that would require an annual report to Congress regarding the extent of cooperation on nuclear programs, ballistic missile development, chemical and biological weapons development, or conventional weapons programs between Iran and North Korea. Also in July, Fitzpatrick backed bipartisan legislation to increase sanctions on Iran as well as North Korea and Russia.

Also testifying at the hearing were:

• The Honorable James F. Jeffrey
  Philip Solondz Distinguished Visiting Fellow
  The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
  (Former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Turkey, and Albania)
• Mr. David Albright
  Founder and President
  Institute for Science and International Security
• Mr. Jake Sullivan
  Senior Fellow
  Geoeconomics and Strategy Program
  Carnegie Endowment for International Peace 
  (Former National Security Adviser to the Vice President; Former Director of Policy Planning, U.S. Department of State)