President Obama ended months of stonewalling and agreed Tuesday that he would sign legislation allowing lawmakers to review any nuclear deal with Iran, after Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee banded together to unanimously approve compromise language.
The panel voted 19-0 to approve legislation worked out between Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, who took over as ranking Democrat after Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey was indicted on federal corruption charges. Menendez was co-author of the legislation with Corker.
The deal shortened the congressional review period for any agreement from 60 days to 30 days and eliminated a requirement that the president periodically certify that Iran is keeping to the terms of any agreement and “has not directly supported or carried out an act of terrorism against the United States, or a United States person anywhere in the world.”
That provision was replaced by one requiring periodic reporting on Iran’s support of terrorism. Another provision aimed at soothing Republican concerns would require the president to certify that any deal would not harm Israel’s security, replacing a bid by some GOP members to require Iran to accept the Jewish state’s right to exist as part of any agreement.
The compromise makes clear that Obama can waive U.S. sanctions if Congress approves a nuclear deal or if it fails to act.
Until the White House relented just before the committee’s vote, Obama had threatened to veto the bill and refused for months to negotiate with its sponsors, though Cardin brought administration concerns into the talks with Corker over compromise language.
As late as Tuesday morning, White House officials were still lobbying against the legislation. Corker told reporters after the vote that Secretary of State John Kerry pressed senators to vote against it in a classified briefing on the Iran talks with Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew.
But once the compromise was circulated among members, it quickly became clear that even Democrats on the panel wanted to ensure that Congress has a voice in any agreement, and that the White House’s rhetoric had benefited supporters in making their case.
“The simple fact is that the White House dropped its veto threat because they weren’t going to have the votes to sustain a veto,” Corker tweeted shortly after Obama dropped his veto threat.
“There’s been some suggestion that if you think Congress needs to approve this you’re anti-diplomacy. That’s ridiculous. There’s even been some suggestion that if you think Congress needs to approve it you’re pro-war. That’s offensive,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., one of the bill’s original co-sponsors, noting that his constituents understand the magnitude of preventing a nuclear Iran and wanted their elected representatives to have a say in any deal.
“The American public overwhelmingly wants Congress to approve a deal, rather than the president just to announce a deal,” he said.
Menendez and other Democrats joined Republicans in noting that passing the bill and ending the dispute between the White House and Congress over approval of any deal would send a strong signal of unity to Iran and bolster the administration’s position in the ongoing talks, which are intended to produce a final agreement by a self-imposed July 1 deadline when an interim deal expires.
“Let’s send a message to Tehran that sanctions relief is not a given,” Menendez said.
What to do about U.S. sanctions is at the core of the dispute between Congress and the White House. Most lawmakers remain deeply skeptical that ongoing talks will produce a deal capable of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, in spite of what Obama called a “historic framework” April 2.
The bill, which has 21 co-sponsors, eight of them Democrats, including Menendez and Chuck Schumer of New York, the presumed successor to Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is expected to receive strong bipartisan support on the Senate floor, despite some Republican grumbling about the compromise.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told reporters on Monday he planned to bring up the legislation once it passes the Senate and expects bipartisan support in “high numbers” for the measure.
