Senate Minority Whip Richard Durbin, D-Ill., said Wednesday that Democratic leaders are working to unify their party to block a resolution disapproving of the Iran deal.
“We are whipping them at this moment,” Durbin said, referring to the arm-twisting that goes on behind the scenes on critical votes.
Democrats, who met Wednesday morning with Secretary of State John Kerry and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, are hoping to block the disapproval resolution in order to avoid a final up or down vote on the measure, which would require just 51 votes for passage.
To succeed in filibustering, Democrats need 41 votes, which would prevent the 60 votes needed to advance the disapproval resolution.
They’ve got 42 Democrats in favor of the Iran nuclear deal, but some of them want to first proceed to the resolution rather than blocking it with a filibuster. That means Democrats have some work to do if they’re going to block the measure.
Democrats are hoping to spare President Obama from vetoing the resolution, and filibustering it is one way to do that. On Tuesday, Democrats tried to encourage Republicans to set up a different vote, one that would require 60 votes to pass the resolution, but Republicans rejected that idea.
Meanwhile, Republicans are stepping up political pressure on Democrats to not block their resolution.
They point to public polling showing decreasing support for the accord, and that Congress earlier this year unanimously passed a bill calling for a debate and vote on either a resolution of approval or disapproval of a nuclear deal with Iran.
A vote could happen as early as this week, and formal debate starts Wednesday afternoon.
“The American people deserve a Senate that can rise to the moment,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said on Wednesday morning. “Tired talking points won’t get us there. A filibuster won’t do it either.”
