Today, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) appeared on Fox Business Network's Kudlow to discuss President Biden’s failure to take action against Iran and the need to reform Washington's broken spending habits. Leader Scalise slammed the Biden Administration for continuing to release billions of dollars to Iran, freeing up more funds they can use to support terrorism, and highlighted House Republicans’ bill to prevent Iran from receiving any more money. Additionally, Leader Scalise stressed that Congress needs to break the Christmas Eve omnibus cycle and change Washington’s spending trajectory. 
   

On President Biden releasing funds to Iran:

“This is crazy – it’s insanity. And in fact, Thursday of this week, Larry, we're going to have a vote on the House floor to block the $6 billion in transfers that Joe Biden wants to send to Iran in that hostage slot. 

“And as you talked about earlier, think about this: Iran is the largest state sponsor of terrorism. They are the funder of Hamas. If you want to support Israel in their war against Hamas, which we're all in for, why would you dare give Iran a dime, let alone $6 billion, $10 billion, these sanctions being eased? 

“That money is going to end up straight in the hands of the Ayatollah. Go back to the [NBC] interview just a few weeks ago – the [President of Iran] made it very clear: Whatever money he gets, he's going to use for whatever purposes he wants, including funding terrorism. Why would you give him a dime? 

“We need to cut off oil exports [that] right now they're allowing. It’s easier to produce and send oil made in Iran around the world than to make it in America. Biden is making it harder to produce energy in America – we talk about this all the time, it's why we need H.R. 1. But energy production in America is harder than making energy in Iran because of Biden's policies that embolden Iran and give them more money to fund terrorism. This is insanity.”

On actions House Republicans are taking to stand up to Iran:

“We passed sanctions a couple of weeks ago, but on this vote coming up Thursday – we just found out this morning about the $10 billion and these sanctions, so obviously we're looking at that – but we had already passed last week out of committee the bill on the $6 billion. And that's money that President Biden negotiated months ago on a hostage swap that everybody said was a horrible deal. Again, this was before the attacks on Israel, where Biden was already playing footsie with Iran. 

“And then after the attacks on Israel, everybody said you shouldn't give them the money and then Biden still is reluctant to do it. Watch the vote on this – I think all of America is going to be watching this vote. The Democrats in committee were split on this vote. Every single Republican and Democrat should vote for this bill to say Iran shouldn't get any money when they're using that money, not only to fund terrorism against Israel, but against American troops, as well. So we're going to have a vote on the House floor Thursday, we'll look at the $10 billion – that just popped up today – but the $6 billion is going to be coming up for a vote Thursday.” 

On breaking the Christmas Eve omnibus bill cycle:

“[Speaker Johnson’s continuing resolution] is going to pass. And the biggest thing on this, Larry, is that it breaks this paradigm where we always get these Christmas Eve omnibus bills. I hate omnibus bills – nobody reads them, they're dumped 3,000 pages the night before the vote, and it’s got all kinds of garbage in it. And those of us who voted against it, it doesn't matter because the bills pass. And it's got all kinds of things you find out later about. But we've got to stop this cycle, and so what [Speaker Johnson] did is negotiate pushing it into January. 

“Let's have a fight over border security in January, and in the meantime, start working on more of these appropriations bills that we have already passed through the House that control spending, that address some of the radical regulations that the Biden Administration has imposed on the country that are crushing jobs [and] raising costs on families. So let's have that negotiation in the meantime, and then in January, we're going to have a fight over getting our border secure, which needs to happen.”