Lawmakers Now Have Opportunity to Strengthen Their Oversight of the Iran Deal

The Senate soon will have an opportunity to strengthen congressional oversight over the Obama administration’s naïve and risky nuclear framework agreement with Iran.

The Senate will be considering the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015, introduced by Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Robert Menendez, D-N.J.

The bill would allow members of Congress to review any nuclear deal with Iran before congressional sanctions could be lifted by the Obama administration.

But there is concern that the legislation in its current form will not be sufficient to stop a bad deal with Iran.

Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., the ranking minority member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, helped to broker a compromise with Corker that pulled the teeth of the original bill, which was opposed by the White House.

The new version shortens the amount of time Congress has to review a nuclear agreement with Iran from 60 days to 30 days, strips the bill of a requirement that the president would need to certify that Iran has not directly supported an act of terrorism against Americans recently anywhere in the world and allows the administration to submit the text of an agreement after the June 30 deadline for final negotiations.

The bill creates a process for Congress to block the lifting of congressional sanctions against Iran, which Congress could do anyway without the bill. It gives the illusion that Congress is taking action to make it easier to block a bad agreement with Iran, while in reality it is likely to provide the administration with political cover for a deal.

As William Kristol wrote in The Weekly Standard, “So as it stands, the bill is at worst misleading, at best toothless.”

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The Senate now has an opportunity to amend the bill to put teeth in it that would strengthen congressional oversight of the administration’s negotiations with Iran.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has proposed an amendment that would block sanctions relief unless Congress votes to approve an agreement and would eliminate the 30 day time limit for congressional review.

Other senators are preparing amendments that would require Iran to stop blocking international inspectors at certain sites, stop operating centrifuges, stop engaging in terror against Americans or stop supporting efforts to destroy Israel.

House conservatives also seek to modify the bill before it is signed into law. Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan, told The Daily Signal that “Clearly, this Congress doesn’t trust the president on a lot of issues, but on this one there is absolutely no trust on both sides of the aisle.”

>>> Senate’s Iran Nuclear Bill Misses the Point