GOP lawmakers link Iran deal to defense spending

Four House Republicans argued Thursday that the Iran nuclear deal will leave Tehran as a growing power and require the United States to increase its spending on the military.

The Republicans, all members of the House Armed Services Committee, spoke as the House began a series of votes on measures that seek to undermine the deal negotiated by the Obama administration.

{mosads}They said after the deal is implemented and sanctions are limited, Congress will need to play a role in preventing problems with Iran from growing.

“There’s a tendency to say, ‘Oh, there’s an agreement. We can breath a sigh of relief. Everything’s going to be OK,’” said Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), chairman of the panel.

“That’s not the case here. This agreement means billions more for all the sorts of activities that we described Iran is doing that causes problems in the world. We’re going to have more problems, not fewer. And that goes back to the defense budget issue. We cannot cut defense any more,” he said.

Thornberry was joined by Reps. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.), Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) and Mike Turner (R-Ohio).

The quartet expressed concerns that lifted sanctions would allow Iran to pour money into terrorist groups, cyber attacks and ballistic missiles, and encourage an arms race in the region.

“Iran is the largest state sponsor of terrorism, and this is not really addressed at all,” Walorski said. “The activities that they’re going to maintain, their attitudes, their plan overall has not changed.”

The lawmakers are also pressing for increased defense spending, which has been limited by the “sequester,” automatic spending ceilings imposed by the 2011 budget deal. A fight over whether to end the sequester is expected to dominate Congress in the next few months.

Thornberry cited Iran’s support for the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Houthi in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon as activities that would be allowed to continue and grow under the deal.

To combat these issues, Thornberry stressed the need to approve the National Defense Authorization Act, which would authorize $612 billion in funding for the Pentagon.

“There is more investment in our nuclear deterrents than we’ve had for a while, and we’re going to need that as nuclear weapons spread around the world,” he said “Building military capability is key, and we are trying to push that.”