Senate GOP Hoping for Veto-Proof Majority on Iran Sanctions Measure
The incoming Republican-led Senate will take up legislation in January to ensure Iranian sanctions will be restored if a nuclear enrichment deal collapses, and supporters may be able to build a veto-proof majority, said, Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., in recent days. Speaking to Fox News on Dec. 28 (here), Kirk, a sponsor of the Iranian sanctions bill, said soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., will first push a vote to approve the Keystone pipeline, and then move to the Nuclear Weapon Free Iran Act of 2013, S-1881 (here).
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Kirk introduced the bill in December 2013, along with Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and more than 30 other lawmakers. According to congressional rules, lawmakers will have to introduce the bill again in the next Congress. Sanctions legislation typically passes through either the Banking or Foreign Relations committees, or both. Supporters will need 67 votes in the Senate to override a presidential veto, but the chairmen of both sanctions committees are on board. Kirk said he and other co-sponsors are working to hit that mark. Congress reconvenes on Jan. 6.
The Kirk-Menendez bill has 60 sponsors, including 17 Democrats. But four of those Democrats lost reelection in November. Sens. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, Mark Pryor, D-Ark., Mary Landrieu, D-La., and Kay Hagan, D-N.C., will not return to the chamber for the 114th Congress. Co-sponsor John Walsh, D-Mont., also did not seek reelection. The next Senate Minority Leader, Harry Reid, D-Nev. shot down Republican efforts to vote on the bill in February 2013 (here).
Meanwhile, co-sponsor Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., also said on Dec. 27 the Senate is poised to pass the bill in the coming days and weeks. “In January of next year there will be a vote on the Kirk-Menendez bill, bipartisan sanctions legislation that says if Iran walks away from the table, sanctions will be re-imposed,” said Graham, speaking with Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem (here). “It is important to let the Iranians know that from an American point of view sanctions are alive and well.” Netanyahu urged more sanctions.
Many trade advocates reject new Iranian sanctions measures, and Obama has threatened to veto sanctions bills. Long-term sanctions relief will pave the way for U.S. airplanes, airplane parts, agriculture and other U.S. exports, some say (see 1412090026). The Obama administration extended the sanctions relief in November as part of its interim deal with Iran and the other P5+1 countries, which include the U.S., Russia, China, the United Kingdom, France and Germany (see 1411280032). The extension is the second of its kind since the P5+1 brokered the Joint Plan of Action with Iran in late 2013. The State Department clarified the sanctions relief on Dec. 29 (see 1412290017). The agency bans petrochemical exports to a range of Iranian companies, and prohibits aircraft sales to Iran Air.
The legislation would trigger the re-imposition of lifted sanctions if Iran violates the terms of any interim or final nuclear pact that the U.S. is party to. The bill also boosts restrictions in the Iranian construction, engineering, and mining sectors, and directs the White House to block property in those industries, as well as the energy, shipping and shipbuilding sectors. It authorizes the Treasury Department to block property in special economic and free economic zones, as well, and targets more senior Iranian officials for sanctions.
In remarks on Dec. 29, President Barack Obama said the U.S. is making strides to restore full relations with Iran, and the administration might even consider opening an embassy in Iran (here). “We know the terms of what [a long-term nuclear deal] would look like,” Obama told NPR. “If Iran recognizes that it is in its own interests, having already said that they're actually not interested in developing a nuclear weapon, to go ahead and prove that to the world, so that over time as it's verified, sanctions are removed, their economy begins to grow, they're reintegrated into the international community — if we can take that big first step, then my hope would be that that would serve as the basis for us trying to improve relations over time.”
Sen. Graham is also aiming to pass a bill that would require congressional approval of any long-term deal, he said. Graham introduced the Iran Nuclear Negotiations Act of 2014, S-2650 (here), in July, along with incoming Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and other Republicans. That bill currently has 12 sponsors.