The Senate on Tuesday refused to require President Obama to submit a nuclear deal with Iran for ratification as a treaty, with 12 Republicans joining all Democrats to protect a fragile bipartisan consensus.
The vote was 39-57 on an amendment by Ron Johnson, R-Wis., to bipartisan legislation that would require Obama to submit a deal for congressional review but would not require lawmakers to approve it before it takes effect.
The legislation 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 President 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, clearing the way for an agreement to be implemented.
In effect, the legislation turns the treaty ratification process under the Constitution upside-down. Instead of 67 Senate votes to ratify a treaty, the bill would require 67 votes to block Obama from carrying out any agreement.
Obama has refused to submit any deal for Senate ratification as a treaty — a sore point with many Republicans, who say the Constitution requires it. But they would need to muster a veto-proof majority to force him to do so.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has been walking a fine line on the bill, balancing the need to protect the fragile compromise that is likely to speed the bill’s enactment into law against concerns by some in his caucus — including two GOP presidential hopefuls — that the legislation concedes too much to a president they already believe is abusing his executive authority.
McConnell endorsed the bill earlier Tuesday in a floor speech, but noted, “I still expect to see a vigorous debate this week. I still expect to see a robust amendment process.”
Democrats will hang together to protect the compromise, which was approved by the Foreign Relations Committee on April 14 in a rare 19-0 vote, said Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
“This bill was brought to the Senate floor on a bipartisan basis and should continue on a bipartisan basis,” he said.
But Republican senators have introduced dozens of amendments that are likely to be “poison pills” which could trigger Democratic opposition and cause the bill to fail.
Another amendment by Johnson and Jim Risch of Idaho would treat any agreement like a trade deal, requiring implementation legislation to be passed by both chambers.
Other amendments would require Obama to certify that Iran is no longer supporting terrorism against the United States as a condition of sanctions relief, and to certify that Iran recognizes Israel’s right to exist.
Republicans also are seeking to bar any waiver of sanctions until Iran releases the U.S. citizens it holds, including Washington Post Tehran bureau chief Jason Rezaian, former Marine Amir Hekmati and Pastor Saeed Abedini, as well as accounting for the fate of Robert Levinson, a former FBI agent who went missing in Iran in 2007 while on a rogue CIA mission.
All of these are popular issues, but Obama, backed by congressional Democrats, insist they must be kept out of the Iran talks, and Republicans alone don’t have the veto-proof majority they would need to force their way on them.
Still, Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker of Tennessee and the panel’s ranking Democrat, Ben Cardin of Maryland, the lead negotiators on the bill, both said they were open to making changes that did not upset the bipartisan consensus.
“Stopping Iran from becoming a nuclear weapons state is so important that we cannot be distracted by other issues,” Cardin said.
