Democrats Block GOP Block Against Iran Nuclear Deal

 
Senate Blocks GOP Measure Against Iran Nuclear Deal

Move ends opponents’ chances of unraveling international agreement
By KRISTINA PETERSON

Updated Sept. 10, 2015 7:40 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama won the biggest foreign-policy fight of his second term Thursday when supporters of his nuclear accord with Iran thwarted an effort to cripple it, paving the way for the deal’s implementation.

The victory was sealed in a procedural vote, as the Senate voted 58-42, short of the 60 votes needed, on a measure aimed at derailing the international agreement. The vote effectively ends a bitter, partisan fight in Congress over the accord, and spares Mr. Obama from the need for a veto to safeguard the deal.

“Today, the Senate took an historic step forward and voted to enable the United States to work with our international partners to enable the implementation of the comprehensive, long-term deal that will prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon,” Mr. Obama said in a statement after the vote. “This vote is a victory for diplomacy, for American national security, and for the safety and security of the world.”

The House has yet to conclude its own series of votes on the nuclear deal, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) indicated the Senate would repeat its vote next week. But with Democrats unlikely to change their positions, the deal’s opponents now have no shot at passing legislation capable of unraveling the international accord.


The agreement reached on July 14 in Vienna imposes strict curbs on Iran’s nuclear program, which will start to be eased after 10 years. In exchange, the U.S., the European Union and the United Nations will lift tight international sanctions on Tehran, contingent on Iran’s compliance with the deal.

All Republicans and a handful of Democrats in Congress are opposed to the deal, worried that its terms, particularly after 10 years, would leave a more economically secure Iran capable of producing a nuclear weapon quickly.

“This deal grants Iran permanent sanctions relief in exchange for only temporary limitations on its nuclear program,” Sen. Bob Menendez (D., N.J.), a former Foreign Relations Committee chairman, said on the Senate floor Thursday.

In the weeks leading up to Thursday’s vote, Democrats faced competing pressures from liberal groups urging them to back Mr. Obama’s diplomacy and critics in a divided Jewish community, who feared Iran would deploy its new resources to fund acts of terrorism against Israel. The pro-Israel lobby American Israel Public Affairs Committee had leaned on Democrats to oppose the deal and urged them to refrain from blocking it on a procedural motion.

After the vote, Mr. McConnell made clear that he wouldn’t let Democrats bring up legislation that he said would make them look tough on Iran unless they had enough support for it to become law.
“We’re not interested in using floor time for get-well efforts over on the other side to try to fool their constituents into thinking, ‘I really was serious about Iran, in spite of the fact that I voted for the deal that you hate,’ ” Mr. McConnell said on the Senate floor Thursday.

Public opinion of the nuclear accord has slipped over the summer, according to the Pew Research Center. In early September, just 21% of adults polled by Pew approved of the agreement, down from 33% in mid-July. Nearly half now disapprove of it, up slightly from 45% in July.

Some Democrats who said they reluctantly endorsed an imperfect deal have already called for renewing the 20-year-old Iran Sanctions Act, which expires at the end of 2016. The law prohibits investments of more than $20 million by U.S. or foreign firms in much of Iran’s energy industry. Lawmakers from both parties have said such sanctions must be reauthorized to ensure that Iran can be punished if it cheats on the nuclear deal or commits other terrorism or human-rights violations.
The White House hasn’t said whether it would support or block the renewal of the sanctions act, but wants to make sure Congress doesn’t make sanctions moves that would prompt Iran to say the U.S. reneged on the deal.

Although Mr. Obama has known for more than a week that he had the support to win a veto fight, suspense remained for days over whether the Senate, narrowly controlled by the GOP, would be able to pass a resolution disapproving the deal, setting up a veto. Republicans hold 54 of the chamber’s 100 seats, but most measures need 60 votes to clear procedural hurdles, enabling Democrats to retain leverage.

Some Democrats had been wary of taking a vote that could be perceived as thwarting an up-or-down vote on a monumental foreign-policy agreement. But Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) told Democrats that the procedural vote would become the final referendum on the nuclear deal. He later stood behind the table where Democrats cast their votes, watching as all 42 members of the Democratic caucus who backed the deal stuck together.

All Senate Republicans and four Senate Democrats voted to advance the disapproval resolution. The four Senate Democrats who oppose the nuclear accord are Mr. Menendez and Sens. Charles Schumer of New York, Ben Cardin of Maryland and Joe Manchin of West Virginia.

The House, meanwhile, passed a measure on party lines Thursday accusing Mr. Obama of failing to comply with legislation enacted in May giving lawmakers 60 days to review and vote on the Iran deal. Republicans have said the clock hasn’t started because the administration didn’t submit two confidential side deals reached between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. agency that will be policing the nuclear deal.

IAEA officials have said they don’t release the confidential agreements the agency strikes with any country, including the U.S. White House officials said they have fully complied with the review law, including briefing any member of Congress who asked to learn more about the IAEA accords.
House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) told reporters Thursday that it was “very possible” that House Republicans would sue Mr. Obama over what they see as his failure to comply with the May review law.

“This is a bad deal with decadeslong consequences for the security of the American people and our allies,” Mr. Boehner said. “We’ll use every tool at our disposal to stop, slow and delay this agreement from being fully implemented.”

Separately, a resolution approving the deal is expected to fail in the GOP-controlled House Friday.
—Carol E. Lee contributed to this article.