Democrats turn against own Iran bill - Burgess Everett - POLITICO
Democrats turn against own Iran bill
By
BURGESS EVERETT
3/3/15 4:17 PM EST
Updated 3/4/15 1:27 PM EST
Senate Democrats are threatening to vote against their own Iran legislation due to the manner in which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is bringing the bill to the Senate floor.
McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Republicans want to show Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that their support of his big speech to Congress on Tuesday wasn’t just talk: They plan to try to pass bipartisan legislation to make it harder for the U.S. to strike a nuclear deal with Iran.
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But there’s a big problem: McConnell’s rush to bring the legislation to the full Senate before it’s been through a committee vote has two of the bill’s Democratic sponsors in full rebellion mode, potentially presaging a Democratic filibuster on the floor if the bill doesn’t go through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee first.
It took only a few hours for Democratic outrage to boil over after McConnell announced the Senate would vote next week on a proposal that would allow Congress to approve or reject any agreement that the U.S. and other world powers reach with Iran to wind down its nuclear program in exchange for the loosening of some sanctions. Many Democratic Iran hawks look to Senate Foreign Relations ranking member Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) for guidance on Iran issues, and an “outraged” Menendez said Tuesday evening he’ll vote against his own bill if he has to.
”There is no emergency; this deal — if there is one — won’t be concluded until almost summer. Let’s do this the right way,” Menendez said. “If this is the process, then I will have no choice but to use my voice and vote against any motion to proceed to the bill.”
A Republican aide shot back at Menendez: “Launching a filibuster of your own bill is going to be pretty tough to explain to constituents.”
Committee approval is expected sometime next week right as the full Senate takes up the bill. That process, similar to how McConnell began moving on approval of the Keystone XL pipeline as soon as he took over the Senate, is irking Democrats who believe McConnell is not fulfilling his pledge to empower congressional committees.
Menendez’s remarks followed a critical statement from another bill co-sponsor, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who said the push to the floor was “rushed and partisan.”
“The effort by the Republican leadership to force the bill to the floor prior to full committee consideration is contrary to the important interests at stake. Premature action also disrespects the ongoing work to build a broad coalition of colleagues in support of this bill,” Kaine said.
The GOP leader’s decision to move forward on that legislation came just a few hours after Netanyahu warned Congress that President Barack Obama’s administration and other world powers were pursuing a “very bad deal” with Iran.
“We think the timing is important. We think it will help the administration from entering into a bad deal. But if they do, it will provide an opportunity for Congress to weigh in,” McConnell said Tuesday.
The first procedural votes on the bill from Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) will likely occur next week as Iran talks are expected to intensify. McConnell said it’s possible the Senate could consider an amendment to the bill that would enact new sanctions on Iran if it backs away from talks or violates any nuclear agreement.
In choosing Corker’s proposal to seek congressional approval as the Senate’s first Iran-related legislation of the year, McConnell is taking an approach that could garner more support from Democrats than new sanctions on Iran. Though Democrats supported a sanctions bill written by Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) in the Senate Banking Committee, most Democrats have pledged not to support it in the full Senate until after March 24, the deadline for a rough framework of a deal with Iran.
Corker’s bill has five Democratic co-sponsors as well as an independent, which would be enough to advance the bill next week past an initial filibuster if they also support the bill on the floor. And it became
clear that the Democratic position against new sanctions during ongoing negotiations had made Corker’s bill the preferred vehicle among Republicans for a congressional response to Obama’s pursuit of an agreement with Iran.
“I would think anybody that ran for the United States Senate and cares about the big issues facing our nation would want to support this piece of legislation,” Corker said Tuesday.
But given the opposition from Menendez and Kaine to the procedural maneuver to McConnell and critical comments from Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday afternoon, the Corker legislation may be blocked from even being debated.
“As we learned, and I hoped [McConnell] learned, saying you’re going to be debating something doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to happen,” Reid said, a reference to Democrats’ repeated filibusters of debating funding legislation laden with immigration riders.
Read more:
Democrats turn against own Iran bill - Burgess Everett - POLITICO
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@Solomon2
You see, your society is finally realizing the truth. You should too.