Is there anything that could bring our deeply divided Congress together in an act of overwhelming bipartisanship? Is there any issue that could unite more than 400 members of the House of Representatives, Democrats and Republicans, in common cause? Is it even possible to have broad bipartisan agreement on a major problem facing the country today?
The answer is yes. You might not have noticed — it didn’t get much coverage — but on Dec. 15 the House voted, by the unheard-of margin of 412 to 12, to pass a bill called the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act. With one loud, united voice, lawmakers told President Obama to stop messing around and impose real sanctions in response to the Iranian nuclear weapons program.
The bill targets a major Iranian vulnerability. Even though it has vast stores of oil — it’s the world’s fourth-largest producer — Iran has little capacity to refine that oil into gasoline, diesel fuel and other usable products. So an oil-rich nation has to import gas. If it can’t get the gas, it can’t keep its economy going. The legislation would crack down on the companies that provide the fuel that keeps the Iranian theocracy in business.
The act’s prologue is an extended rebuke of the Obama administration’s Iran policy. Iran’s nuclear program is “a serious threat to the security of the United States,” the prologue says, and many U.S. allies, including Britain, France and Germany, have already advocated tougher sanctions against Iran.
In October 2008, the prologue continues, then-senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama said petroleum sanctions might force Iran to change its ways. “If we can prevent them from importing the gasoline that they need and the refined petroleum products, that starts changing their cost-benefit analysis,” Obama said. “That starts putting the squeeze on them.”
The prologue goes on to cite the “serious and urgent nature” of the Iranian threat, as well as the “brutal repression and murder, arbitrary arrests, and show trials of peaceful dissidents” in Iran. It declares that Iran has not only ignored but has been “contemptuous of” Obama’s efforts to reach out to Tehran.Iran “is not interested in a diplomatic resolution,” the act concludes. Therefore, it is time for action.
The legislation would require Obama to impose sanctions on companies that sell refined petroleum to Iran or help Iran acquire refined petroleum, either by shipping it in or by increasing Iran’s capacity to refine oil. The proposed sanctions extend to companies that provide ships for getting the refined products to Iran and even companies that insure those ships.
The sanctions include basically barring those firms from doing business in the United States — prohibiting them from taking part in any financial transactions in the United States, freezing their U.S. assets and forbidding them from dealing in U.S. dollars. Those are real and serious penalties, and they would be felt if actually imposed on the companies that keep the Iranian machine running.
After decisive passage in the House, the act is now in the Senate, where it also has far-reaching bipartisan support. The problem is, the Democratic leadership has been more interested in passing a national health care bill by Christmas Eve than in dealing firmly with the Iranian nuclear threat.
But it will ultimately pass the Senate and then head to Obama’s desk. Will the president who has invested so much of his personal prestige in the idea of engagement — the man who, as a candidate, pledged to meet Mahmoud Ahmedinejad without preconditions — actually take action?
“This is a test for the Obama administration,” says an advocate of sanctions. “It’s clear Iran is not cooperating. Will the administration lead on this and move forward to the United Nations, with the Europeans and then with the coalition of the like-minded? It will be a moment of truth, the time by which his foreign policy will be defined.”
Support for action is as bipartisan as bipartisan can be. In the House, the act was passed with the votes of 241 Democrats and 171 Republicans. Republicans Mike Pence and Eric Cantor support it, and Democrats Henry Waxman and Barney Frank support it. The 12 lawmakers who voted against it were mostly fringe figures, including Reps. John Conyers, Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul.
The mainstream message is as clear as Congress can make it: It’s time for Obama to do something.
