The House cleared legislation that would require President Obama to submit any nuclear deal with Iran to Congress for review, but require a supermajority to keep it from being implemented.
The vote was 400-25, with most of the opposition coming from conservative Republicans who felt it was too weak.
Neither the Senate, which passed the bipartisan compromise a week ago in a 98-1 vote, nor the House made significant changes to the legislation approved unanimously on April 14 by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
After that vote, Obama reversed his opposition to the legislation and said he would sign it if it preserved the compromise worked out between Democrats and Republicans on the committee.
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, clearing the way for an agreement to be implemented.
“This bipartisan legislation is an important and responsible response to an administration that otherwise would shut Congress out of the process of approving a final nuclear deal with Iran,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., said. “Once this legislation is signed, Congress will be in a much better position to judge any final agreement to ensure that the Obama administration hasn’t struck a bad deal.”
It’s unlikely the process established by the legislation will block Obama from implementing any deal he’s willing to sign, since many Democrats who supported it are prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt on the details of an agreement.
“I favor and will vote for oversight and review today, but President Obama should know that he has the support in this House to fulfill our obligations under a verifiable agreement for a safer world and to avoid war,” said Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas.
But a majority vote in both chambers against any final deal, which is likely given GOP opposition to the preliminary framework announced April 2 in Lausanne, Switzerland, would still send a powerful signal of how out of step Obama’s negotiating strategy has been with both Congress and U.S. voters, who mostly distrust Iran and are skeptical any deal will meet the administration’s goal of preventing its Shiite Muslim theocracy from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
That, the bill’s supporters argued, was the best they could do in today’s political reality.
