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House Votes to Block U.S. Financing for Iran Aircraft Sales

Washington, Nov 17 -

WASHINGTON – The House voted on Wednesday to block U.S. financing for the export of aircraft to Iran by a vote of 243-174.

The bill approved by the House -- H.R. 5711 -- prohibits the Treasury Department from authorizing transactions by U.S. financial institutions related to airplane sales to Iran.  In addition, the bill bars the Export-Import Bank from extending financing related to Iran.

“By cutting off Iran from the U.S. financial system – a goal the Obama Administration has claimed it supports – H.R. 5711 would protect Americans’ deposits from finding their way into terrorists’ hands,” Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) said in his testimony before the Rules Committee on Monday.

The sponsor of the bill, Monetary Policy and Trade Subcommittee Chairman Bill Huizenga (R-MI), said it “would keep Americans’ deposits away from a country that the President’s own State Department calls ‘the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism’ and which Treasury has designated as ‘a jurisdiction of primary money laundering concern.’

“Under this bill, Americans would not have to fear that their savings are being channeled to Iran Air, which was sanctioned by Treasury in 2011 for ferrying soldiers and weapons of war to Syria, the site of a five-year conflict that has claimed half a million lives,” he added.

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