Treasury, State Should Get More Resources to Use New Sanctions Powers, McCaul Says

House Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, urged the Biden administration Oct. 18 to give the Treasury and State departments additional resources, including personnel, to speed up implementation of the new sanctions authorities that were enacted into law almost six months ago.

In a letter to President Joe Biden, McCaul asserted that no sanctions have been imposed under the 21st Century Peace Through Strength Act since Biden signed the legislation into law in April. McCaul said implementation of the new sanctions is urgently needed to counter "unprecedented threats" from Iran, Russia and China.

“Nearly six months later, the Biden-Harris administration has failed to implement these requirements while our enemies are on the march," McCaul wrote. "During this delay, Iran launched another major ballistic missile attack on Israel, transferred ballistic missiles to Russia, and supported its terrorist proxies; Iran-backed Hamas murdered hostages, including American Hersh Goldberg-Polin; and China continued to purchase Iranian oil and support Russia’s defense industrial base. The world is on fire; we cannot lose another day to hesitation, appeasement, and weakness."

The 21st Century Peace Through Strength Act includes a host of measures, including the Stop Harboring Iranian Petroleum (SHIP) Act, which requires sanctions on foreign ports and refineries that process Iranian oil; the Iran-China Energy Sanctions Act, which requires sanctions on Chinese financial institutions that process transactions involving Iranian oil (see 2404240043); the Mahsa Amini Human Rights and Security Accountability (MAHSA) Act, which calls for sanctioning Iranian leaders for human rights abuses and support for terrorism; and the Fight and Combat Rampant Iranian Missile Exports (Fight CRIME) Act, which sanctions people involved in Iranian missile proliferation.

McCaul’s letter came less than two weeks after a bipartisan group of seven senators urged the administration to speed up implementation of new Iran sanctions laws (see 2410110065). Four Republican lawmakers sent a similar Iran letter to the administration in September (see 2409190053). McCaul sent his own Iran letter in August (see 2408140052).

The administration has said it's working to implement the new laws (see 2408120032 and 2409160054).