House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce on Tuesday moved to reject President Obama’s signature foreign policy achievement with a resolution to disapprove of the nuclear deal with Iran.
“If this agreement goes through, Iran gets a cash bonanza, a boost to its international standing, and a lighted path toward nuclear weapons. By granting sweeping sanctions relief, we have lessened our ability to challenge Iran’s conduct across the board. As Iran grows stronger, we will be weaker to respond,” the California Republican said.
“I do not relish in introducing this consequential legislation. But the consequences for global security from this agreement are too great. This deal gives up too much, too fast, to a terrorist state — making the world less safe, less secure, and less stable.”
Royce’s resolution, if adopted, would permanently block President Obama from waiving any sanctions enacted into U.S. law – a key inducement used to get Iran to accept limits on its nuclear program under the deal. But Obama has promised to veto any measure that gets in the way of implementing the deal, which already has been approved by the U.N. Security Council.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a statement that members “will have an opportunity to vote for this resolution when we return in September,” and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said his chamber “in all likelihood” would also consider it.
Though clear majorities in both chambers want to reject the deal, it’s not clear whether Republicans can sway enough Democrats to their side to overcome a presidential veto. There had been talk of offering a resolution approving of the deal, in the hope that it would fail by a large margin and show how little support Obama has on Capitol Hill for his approach.
Under a law passed in May, Congress has until mid-September to consider the deal, but can only vote to block any lifting of sanctions enacted into U.S. law. Though lawmakers do not have the power to reject the deal outright, Secretary of State John Kerry told lawmakers last week that this would effectively kill it.
Many key Democrats remain undecided, but one of them, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, announced Tuesday that he would support the deal, saying it’s “a dramatic improvement over the status quo in improving global security. The agreement takes a nuclear weapons program that was on the verge of success and disables it for many years through peaceful diplomatic means with sufficient tools for the international community to verify whether Iran is meeting its commitments.”
Susan Ferrechio contributed to this story.
