House Passes Legislation to Help Halt Iran from Buying American Spare Military Parts

Washington D.C. - Today, H.R. 1441, a bill co-sponsored by Congressman McCarthy to help halt Iran from buying spare military F-14 Tomcat parts, received overwhelming bipartisan support and passed the House by voice vote. Now, the bill heads to the Senate, where Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) has authored a similar bill.

“A garage sale of military parts out of America’s Department of Defense that increase Iran’s military capability is completely unacceptable, and this bill helps to prevent our country from feeding Iran’s ever-increasing appetite for spare F-14 parts,” said Congressman McCarthy. “Today is a testament to bipartisanship, where Republicans and Democrats worked together to find a common sense solution to stop an openly hostile and threatening enemy from acquiring military parts that further threaten our country and our allies.”

“This is common sense legislation,” said U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), chief sponsor of H.R. 1441. “Republicans and Democrats alike recognize the grave threat a hostile Iran poses to our country and to the stability of the Middle East. Today, Republicans and Democrats stood together to make sure potentially lethal military hardware cannot be used against us or our allies.”
Currently, Iran is the only country who uses F-14 Tomcat war planes. Before Islamic extremists took over Iran in the late 1970’s, Iran acquired F-14 Tomcats from the United States. On March 27, 2007, Congressman McCarthy responded to reports that hostile countries, like Iran, could acquire U.S. spare F-14 aircraft spare military parts from the Department of Defense and co-sponsored H.R. 1441.
 
In 2001, according to court records and news reports, the owner and two officers of Bakersfield-based Multicore Ltd. were convicted of violating the Arms Export Control Act for acting as a front company for the Iranian government to acquire missiles and aircraft parts. If enacted, H.R. 1441 would prohibit the Department of Defense from selling any F-14 parts except to American museums for the purpose of preserving history.