Senate Panel Deal Paves Way for Vote on Iran Nuclear Bill - New York Times

WASHINGTON — The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said Tuesday that the panel had reached an accord on a bipartisan bill giving Congress a vote on an international deal to rein in Iran’s nuclear program.

The compromise measure would shorten a review period for a final deal and soften language that would make the lifting of sanctions dependent on Iran’s ending support for terrorism.

The agreement, struck between Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, the committee’s chairman, and Senator Benjamin L. Cardin of Maryland, its ranking Democrat, still must be voted on this afternoon, but leaders in both parties expressed their support. One senior Democratic aide said the bill would now have overwhelming, veto-proof support in the full Senate.

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Under the agreement, an initial 60-day review period of a final nuclear agreement was in effect cut in half, to 30 days. But the review period would also include the maximum 12 days the president would have to decide whether to accept or veto a resolution of disapproval, should Congress take that vote. It would also include a maximum of 10 days for Congress to decide whether to override the veto.

Mr. Corker also agreed to a significant change on the terrorism language. Initially, the bill said that the president would have to certify every 90 days that Iran was no longer supporting terrorism against Americans at home or abroad. If he could not, economic sanctions would be reimposed. Under the agreement, the president would still have to send periodic reports to Congress on Iran’s activities regarding ballistic missiles and terrorism, but those reports could not set off another imposition of sanctions lifted as part of the nuclear deal.

The White House has said for weeks that President Obama will veto the legislation. But Senate Democrats expressed hope that an overwhelming vote in the committee Tuesday would force a reconsideration. If not, Democrats said, they are prepared to hand the president his first veto override, an embarrassing rebuke, as long as the Corker-Cardin deal holds.

There are still potential hurdles. Senate Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, plans to introduce an amendment making the Iran deal dependent on Iran’s recognition of the state of Israel. Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, would make the final Iran accord — due by June 30 — a formal international treaty, subject to a two-thirds vote of ratification by the Senate.

To temper opposition, Secretary of State John Kerry, the secretary of the Treasury, Jacob J. Lew, and Ernest Moniz, the secretary of Energy, gathered with senators Tuesday morning for a classified briefing. A similar briefing was held for the House on Monday. The administration has found itself swimming against a bipartisan tide of lawmakers insistent that Congress have a role in any international accord that involves lifting sanctions that Congress imposed.

The agreement almost certainly means Congress — over the White House’s stern objections — will muscle its way into nuclear negotiations that Mr. Obama sees as a legacy-defining foreign policy achievement. The Foreign Relations Committee will begin formally drafting the bill Tuesday afternoon, with a vote on it as early as Tuesday evening. The Senate would most likely approve it this month.

Having reached their accord, Mr. Corker and Mr. Cardin will try to stave off amendments from the left and right that could upset the delicate bipartisan balance.

”We have kept the pure integrity of the process in place,” Mr. Corker declared.

Under the Iran Nuclear Review Act, Congress could ultimately take a vote disapproving the lifting of sanctions, which would effectively nullify the agreement, since Iran would be dismantling much of its nuclear infrastructure in order to get the sanctions lifted. But the president would then be able to veto that resolution of disapproval, meaning that unless 67 senators voted to override the veto, the deal would be able to go forward.

”If the administration can’t convince 34 senators of either party to go forward, that this is a really bad agreement,” Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, a Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee said. “That’s the threshold.”

Correction: April 14, 2015

An earlier version of this article misspelled the given name of the Secretary of Energy. He is Ernest Moniz, not Earnest.

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