Legislation requiring congressional review of any nuclear deal with Iran heads to the Senate floor this week, where the toughest job for the sponsors of the bill is likely to be warding off efforts to change the carefully negotiated compromise.
Support for the bipartisan legislation is strong. The bill has 57 co-sponsors in the Senate and is expected to easily pass both chambers of Congress as it is currently written. President Obama has said he would sign it if no changes are made.
“We do not want to see it taken in a partisan direction, and so we’re going to band together to block amendments that will try to make it partisan rather than careful and deliberate,” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., a co-sponsor of the bill, said Tuesday.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., lead sponsor of the legislation, said Tuesday he has had no indications on what amendments, if any, may be offered.
“I haven’t addressed that particular issue yet,” Corker told reporters. “I am obviously in conversations about trying to keep the balance that we have on the bill now.
“I think there is an understanding by all that there is a balance that needs to be maintained.”
The bill would give Congress 30 days to review a deal and decide whether to vote on a resolution of disapproval. If one is adopted, the bill allows another 22-day period during which Obama can veto the resolution and Congress could try to override his veto.
During that period, Obama may not waive any sanctions written into U.S. law. But if the disapproval resolution is not adopted over his expected veto, that restriction is lifted.
Many Republicans are not happy with the compromise, insisting that Obama is required under the Constitution to submit an arms control deal with Iran for Senate ratification as a treaty. In effect, the legislation reverses the number of votes needed for approval of a deal. The Constitution requires 67 Senate votes to ratify a treaty, while the bill would require 67 Senate votes to block Obama from carrying out any agreement.
“From my standpoint, what President Obama is doing on behalf of America is a treaty,” Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., said April 14 when the Foreign Relations Committee approved the bill by a 19-0 vote.
Johnson, like other Republicans on the panel, gave in to the reality that it would also take 67 votes to force Obama to submit any deal as a treaty, which he refuses to do.
“If I could wave a wand or pigs begin to fly, I could turn this agreement into what has been discussed,” Corker noted at the committee’s markup.
Conservative pundits have excoriated committee Republicans, Corker in particular, for “selling out” by approving the compromise legislation. That may have an effect on other GOP lawmakers as the process moves forward.
Obama opposed the legislation for months, but backed down when it became clear that most Democrats wanted to have a say in any deal, especially if it involves lifting of sanctions. Still, his support — and that of most Democrats — is conditioned on agreement by the Republicans who control Congress not to alter the legislation.
