Should the Treasury Compile and Publish a Report on Assets Held by Iran’s Leaders? (H.R. 1638)

What is H.R. 1638?

(Updated May 24, 2018)

This bill would require the Treasury Dept. to provide Congress with a report on assets held by the leadership of Iran’s government. The initial report would be due within 270 days of the bill’s enactment, and subsequent reports would be required for each of the next two years. The unclassified portion of the report would be made publicly available and posted on Treasury’s website in downloadable English, Farsi, Arabic, and Azeri versions.

Specifically, the report would include information on:

• The funds or assets held in U.S. and foreign financial institutions that are directly or indirectly controlled by specified Iranian officials;

• Any equity stake such official has in an entity on Treasury’s list of Specially Designated Nationals or in any other sanctioned entity;

• How such funds, assets, or equity interests were acquired and used;

• New methods used to evade anti-money laundering and related laws, including recommendations to improve techniques to combat illicit uses of the U.S. financial system by each such official;

• Recommendations for revising U.S. economic sanctions against Iran to prevent Iranian officials from using funds or assets to develop and procure ballistic missile technology;

• How Treasury assesses the effectiveness of U.S. economic sanctions against Iran;

• Recommendations for improving Treasury’s ability to develop and enforce additional economic sanctions against Iran if so ordered by the president.

Argument in favor

Iran’s leaders are corrupt, and by publishing a report that exposes the regime’s ill-gotten wealth this bill would give opposition leaders valuable information to use in bringing about democratic change.

Argument opposed

While bringing transparency to corrupt regimes is a worthy goal, this bill would undermine U.S. national security interests because it would strain Treasury Dept. resources to produce this report.

Impact

Iranian officials and people who want to know about their assets; and the Treasury Department.

Cost of H.R. 1638

The CBO estimates that enacting this bill would cost less than $500,000 in 2018 and 2019, but that costs could be higher if the federal government doesn’t currently collect and classify such information.

Additional Info

In-Depth: Sponsoring Rep. Bruce Poliquin (R-ME) introduced this bill to publicly disclose the assets of Iran’s regime that have been used to support terrorism:

“Iran’s top regime leaders — the Supreme Leader and the country’s top political and military brass — have amassed huge wealth through their tyrannical rule and corrupt and covert structure. Reports have indicated these funds are being used to support and sponsor terrorism around the region and to undermine our own national security interests. Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, cannot be trusted and it’s important for the security of the region and for the United States for these secret funds to be exposed publicly to the world.”

Some House Democrats expressed opposition to this bill in its committee report:

“Although increasing transparency into corrupt regimes is a laudable goal, H.R. 1638 would not promote U.S. national security interests. First, the level of scrutiny that would be needed to produce a credible report would place a very real strain on the Treasury Department, diverting significant resources away from Treasury investigators who are tasked with targeting sanctionable conduct, implementing existing sanctions on Iran, and uncovering illicit conduct across the globe, including, importantly, efforts to identify the web of business interests that continue to enable North Korea to evade U.S. and international sanctions.”

This legislation passed the House Financial Services Committee on a 43-16 vote.

Media:

• Sponsoring Rep. Bruce Poliquin (R-ME) Press Release
  
• CBO Cost Estimate
  
• Ripon Advance (Previous Version)