The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly passed a bill on Thursday giving legislators final say over a tentative deal with Iran that President Obama announced in April. The deal, whose details are set to be hammered out by the end of June, would relieve American sanctions in Iran in exchange for increased oversight of Iran’s nuclear programs by key international powers. Republicans, along with some Democrats, want to dictate the terms of the deal, which they believe will give Iran too much for too little. To that effect, the Senate passed the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act.
"The Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act offers the best chance for our constituents, through the Congress they elect, to weigh in on the White House's negotiations with Iran," Senate Majority Leader McConnell said during debate on the bill.
President Obama had promised to veto any bill that allowed the legislature to micro-manage his hard-fought deal, but today’s sweeping 98-1 vote signaled that the Senate could override such a move with a supermajority. To gather a coalition large enough to support the bill with two-thirds of the chamber, Republican leaders compromised on key measures of the bill, and blocked voting on so-called “poison-pill” amendments. Chief among the tweaks that would have scuttled the bill were proposals by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida).
Rubio had proposed a requirement that the final Iran deal require that country’s regime to publically state Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) planned to offer an amendment to require Iran to get rid of all nuclear power facilities and disclose pas military programs. To Senators closer to the center, those and other right-wing amendments began to look like a bowling ball chucked at a chessboard of strategic compromises laid out by the State Department. Rubio dismissed accusations that he was trying to kill the deal.
"I just want a vote to make sure that any future deal doesn't endanger Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. I think all the amendments should be allowed to be voted on, unfortunately the Democrats won't allow that," said Rubio, who is currently running for president.
Rubio wasn’t the only angry Republican. Sen. David Vitter (R-Louisiana) rebuked fellow republicans for blocking debate on the amendments.
“This has been a determined, choreographed effort to close the door of an open amendment process and to demand leverage so that every amendment has to be worked out. You know what ‘worked out’ means? That means they get a veto, we don’t get a vote,” Vitter said.
The bill now heads to the House, where Republican Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) is expected to support the bill.
Tom Cotton was the only senator to vote against the bill. Barbara Boxer (D-California) was the only senator not present.
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