This bill would withhold 5% of the funds appropriated for the State Dept.’s diplomatic and consular programs for every 30 days that the department’s report on international human rights is late.
Announcing the bill, Cruz said that up-to-date information on human rights abuses committed by the Iranian government should be used as a tool in the then-ongoing negotiations between the P5+1 and Iran and not ‘swept under the rug’; an op-ed by Cruz to the same effect ran in the Washington Times on 6/16. In response to this and similar initiatives, the Obama administration reaffirmed its position consistently that the negotiations, and any final agreement, would cover the nuclear issue only and not Iran’s human rights record.
1 cosponsor (1R).
Last major action: 6/18/15 referred to Senate Comm. on Foreign Relations.