The White House insisted on Thursday that Congress has just one week to thwart the agreement between Iran and six world powers to curb its nuclear program under the timetable Congress established for reviewing the deal, despite new GOP arguments that the 60-day clock it has for reviewing the deal should never have started.
If Republican lawmakers are unable to secure a veto-proof majority rejecting the deal by then, the “international community” will begin implementing the accord, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Thursday.
“[T]hey essentially had 60 days to play the spoiler,” Earnest said about Republicans who want to jettison the deal that China, France, Germany, Great Britain, Russia and the United States negotiated with Iran to stunt Tehran’s nuclear weapons program.
Under the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act passed in May, Congress had 60 days to weigh the contract and its annexes. But now that enough Senate Democrats support implementing the treaty to prevent Republicans from blocking it, House Republicans are considering suing the Obama administration to prevent the agreement from taking effect.
“[I]t’s not a coincidence, that — what we’ve taken to the calling the ‘Tortilla Coast’ gambit — is something that emerged just hours after it became clear that this resolution of disapproval would not move through the United States Senate,” Earnest said. He was picking up on his colleague Eric Schultz’s description Wednesday that GOP lawmakers “hatched” the idea of a lawsuit over drinks at a well-known restaurant near the House office buildings.
“Now the House, again because of this plan, this gambit, has decided to abandon that approach and to consider three other pieces of legislation that the Senate has made pretty clear they’re not going to consider,” Earnest said about Speaker John Boehner’s decision to first have his colleagues vote on a sure-to-fail resolution approving of the nuclear deal.
“[T]his obviously is not the first time we’ve seen Republicans who are unsuccessful in trying to prevent the president from doing something using their official duties as a member of Congress resort in desperation to a piece of litigation,” Earnest said about the proposed lawsuit.
Earnest stressed that although the United Nations can begin following through with the agreement on Sept. 17, Tehran does not get relief from punishing economic sanctions until it lives up to its obligations.
“That means reducing their nuclear stockpile … rendering harmless their plutonium reactor at Arak; it means essentially disconnecting thousands of centrifuges; it means cooperating with the IAEA,” Earnest said referring to the International Atomic Energy Agency. “It’s only after those steps have been taken and verified that the international community will move forward with offering sanctions relief to Iran.”
Republicans would base their lawsuit on the grounds that they have not been given copies of the agreement documenting what the IAEA and Tehran worked out for exactly how inspections and verification of Iran’s compliance will be carried out.
“If there’s any member of Congress that says, ‘well I would like to know what is in that agreement,’ they can contact the administration and in an appropriate, classified setting can be briefed on the contents of that agreement,” Earnest said about the ancillary documents. “There’s no mystery to, at least to members of Congress with a security clearance, as to what’s included in that agreement,” he said.
