The Senate this week was scheduled to debate a bill that would authorize Congress to reject a U.S. nuclear deal with Iran, but the timing of the legislation threatened bipartisan passage and a rare chance for Congress to override a presidential veto.
In an unusual move, Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., withdrew a March 10 vote on the bill, agreeing to wait until Democrats are ready to provide critical bipartisan support.
“The strongest signal we can send to the U.S. negotiators is having a veto-proof majority in support of Congress weighing in on any final nuclear deal with Iran,” Senate Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said after the decision as announced.
Senate Republicans and Democrats had lined up in February behind the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015. The legislation, authored by Corker and Foreign Relations panel ranking member Bob Menendez, D-N.J., would give Congress the power to approve or disapprove a nuclear agreement with Iran. It also would impose a 60-day block on the Obama administration ending congressionally passed sanctions against Iran.
With strong bipartisan skepticism of ongoing U.S talks with Iran over a deal to halt its production of a nuclear weapon, lawmakers were poised to not only pass the Nuclear Agreement Review Act, but to do so with the bipartisan supermajority needed to override Obama’s likely veto of the bill.
But partisanship fizzled last week when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he would speed up the vote and Democrats were left wondering if it could be restored.
“We’ll see if confidence can be rebuilt,” said Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, who votes with the Democrats.
Republican co-sponsors said they support the Democrats but were hesitant to question McConnell’s motives for speeding up a vote.
“I want to get a bipartisan vote,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told the Washington Examiner. “I don’t want to create a problem for Democrats.
The trouble started after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a March 3 address to a joint meeting of Congress, warning against the emerging deal that U.S. officials are negotiating with Iran on its nuclear program. A March 24 deadline has been set for the United States and its partners and Iran to establish the framework of an agreement.
But Netanyahu told Congress the developing deal would not ensure Iran does not produce a nuclear weapon, nor would it reduce Iran’s involvement in sponsoring terrorism in the region.
“It’s a very bad deal,” Netanyahu told Congress. “We’re better off without it.”
Soon after Netanyahu left the House chamber, McConnell walked onto the Senate floor to announce he was speeding up action on the Nuclear Agreement Review Act, scheduling a March 10 vote.
“Congress must be involved in reviewing and voting on an agreement reached between this White House and Iran, and this bill would ensure that that happens,” McConnell said.
The announcement surprised Democrats, who said GOP sponsors of the legislation had given them assurances that the legislation would move through “regular order,” a term used to describe a bill first receiving consideration and a vote in committee, which allows for amendments and other changes.
“I signed on after lengthy conversations with Bob Corker and Lindsey Graham because of the policies embodied in the bill,” King said. “And I was assured that this was going to be decided on the basis of the merits and not politics and I have to say what has happened has shook my confidence.”
Democrats believed the legislation would not be up for a vote until after the March 24 deadline. They accused McConnell of playing a political game of “gotcha” by forcing them to vote on a measure that would would buck the White House at a critical time in the negotiations with Iran.
Menendez, the original cosponsor of the bill, sent a letter to McConnell, signed by 10 Democrats, pledging to vote against the bill this week.
“There is no immediate or urgent need to circumvent the committee process and we are disappointed you’ve pursued this partisan course of action,” Melendez wrote.
McConnell remained committed to holding the vote as late as March 4, but Corker and other GOP senators sent the leadership word that they wanted to hold off.
By March 5, McConnell conceded, canceling the vote on a day the Senate was closed due to a snowstorm and replacing it with anti-human trafficking legislation. McConnell blamed Democrats, who he noted were original supporters of the bill in February, before the March deadline, and were now threatening to block the measure because of the timing.
“It is clear that Senate Democrats will filibuster their own bill,” said McConnell spokesman Don Stewart, “a bill they rushed to introduce before the White House cut a deal with Iran. So, instead, the Senate will turn next to the anti-human-trafficking legislation while Democrats decide whether or not they believe they and Congress as a whole should be able to review and vote on any deal the president cuts with the leaders of Iran.”
Graham said he wants to ensure Democrats vote for the bill.
“If we have to wait until after the 24th, I’m willing to wait,” Graham told the Examiner. “As long as I know there will be bipartisan support for review of the deal.”
