Washington, D.C. – Congressman Frank Lucas (OK-3) today voted to pass the Iran Terror Finance Transparency Act. This legislation, led by fellow Oklahoma Congressman Steve Russell (OK-5), helps to block President Obama’s controversial easing of long-held sanctions against Iranian sponsors of terror and human rights abuse. The bill, which passed by a vote of 246 –181, comes after December reports of Iran conducting missile tests less than 1,500 yards away from American naval vessels, as well as news last month that Iran captured and briefly detained ten U.S. Navy sailors.

“President Obama’s decision to strike a deal with Iran is dumbfounding. The nuclear deal lacks 24/7, on-demand inspections; it lacks any sort of reliable verification; and it forces America and our allies to trust a regime with a decades long record of funding and supporting terrorism. This deal can only be characterized as a last-ditch effort to bolster his presidential legacy,” said Congressman Lucas.

“While the president went entirely around Congress to ratify this agreement, I believe it’s our responsibility to ensure our sanctions against Iran are not entirely dissolved. To this end, I applaud Congressman Russell for spearheading this effort to hold the Obama Administration accountable and shine light on an international agreement many Americans were opposed to from the start.”

The Iran Terror Finance Transparency Act would prohibit the president from removing foreign banks from the Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) until the White House can verify these institutions have not provided services to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp or any foreign terror organization.

Iran also remains on the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism. The bill stresses that Iran’s proxies – Hezbollah, Hamas and the Palestine Islamic Jihad – are classified as terrorist organizations under financial sanctions.