By a strong bipartisan vote, the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on Thursday approved legislation that would impose new sanctions on Iran if it does not agree to limit its nuclear program by the June 30 deadline set by international negotiators.
The committee voted 18-4 to approve the bill by Sens. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., and Bob Menendez, D-N.J., on the understanding that it will not go to the floor before March 24, the self-imposed deadline negotiators have set to reach a political framework for a final agreement. Six Democrats joined all 12 Republicans in voting to approve the bill.
Kirk and Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., also joined the panel’s Democrats to beat back several attempts by their GOP colleagues to toughen the legislation as part of a deal to maintain the bipartisan coalition behind it.
“If we end up without a deal there’s gonna be a lot of strengthening in the underlying legislation when it comes to the floor,” Corker said.
According to a draft of the bill, if no final agreement is reached by the June 30 deadline, sanctions that had been waived as part of an interim deal would be reinstated on July 6 and additional sanctions would be imposed, starting with tighter restrictions on Iran’s access to markets for its oil, though Obama would have the power to waive those in the national interest.
The legislation would bar any new waivers of sanctions until Congress has the chance to review any final deal for 30 legislative days — about two to three months in real time.
President Obama has threatened to veto the legislation, but Kirk and Menendez have built strong support among senators of both parties with an eye toward passing it with a veto-proof majority. Their efforts have been aided by concerns among lawmakers that administration officials — who have been promising for more than a year that they would support new sanctions if Iran proved not to be negotiating in good faith — seem willing to tolerate just about anything, even cheating, to keep Tehran from walking away from the table.
“This is a good step forward,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, a member of the Senate’s Democratic leadership, adding that “I hope we can keep our bipartisan coalition together” to send a strong signal to Iran that it will face consequences if there is no deal.
The Senate has been the sticking point for past efforts to impose new sanctions. Legislation passed the Republican-controlled House in 2013 with overwhelming bipartisan support, and support there for the idea remains strong.
