Iran dealGOP caucus infighting stymies House vote on Iran deal
The Senate is not likely to bring the Iran nuclear deal to the floor of the Senate for an up-or-down vote because forty-two Democrats have now announced their support for the deal. It now appears that the House will not vote on the Iran deal, either, but for a different reason: Infighting among House Republicans who oppose the deal. The more conservative members of the House GOP caucus say the Obama administration had not provided all the required information about the deal. Opponents of the deal insist it includes “secret side deals” about nuclear inspections, side deals which have not been revealed either to the public or to lawmakers. The critics say that the review act, which gave Congress 60-day window to debate and vote on the deal, has not been triggered on 19 July, as the administration insists, since the act required all the information and documents pertaining to the deal to be given to Congress. Since, they argue, not all the documents have been given to Congress, not only has the review act has not been triggered on 19 July – and cannot close on 17 September – but there should be not vote of approval or disapproval.
Houe committee meeting in session // Source: commons.wikimedia.com
The Senate is not likely to bring the Iran nuclear deal to the floor of the Senate for an up-or-down vote because forty-two Democrats have now announced their support for the deal. It takes sixty senators to vote for a motion of cloture, that is, a motion to end debate and bring a measure to a floor vote, but Republican critics of the bill can no longer muster debate-ending sixty votes.
It now appears that the House will not vote on the Iran deal, either, but for a different reason: Infighting among House Republicans who oppose the deal.
The House of Representatives was supposed to vote yesterday (Wednesday) on a procedural motion to begin debate on the Iran deal, but the Washington Post reports that that vote was put off after some Republicans said there was no point in voting on the deal unless President Barack Obama provide more information about the deal – specifically, any side deals which have been agreed to in secret.
In May Obama signed a law giving Congress a 60-day window to debate and vote on the nuclear agreement between the P5+1 and Iran. This window closes on 17 September.
With forty-two senators now supporting the deal, the deal can no longer be stopped. In the unlikely event of two senators who support the deal agreeing to vote for cloture which would send the measure to a vote on the Senate floor – a vote in which the Republican majority would support a measure of disapproval of the deal – the president would veto the measure, and it takes only thirty-four senators to prevent the overriding of the veto.
Late on Wednesday, in a frantic effort to find a compromise among the warring House GOP factions, House Republican leaders fashioned a plan for three Iran-related votes. None of the proposed three votes would immediately affect the nuclear pact, and in any event, Senate Republicans said they would stay with their plan to reach an agreement with Senate Democrats to allow a vote on the Senate floor on a resolution of disapproval.
The House Republican leadership said the first vote would be on a resolution asserting that Obama provided too little information to Congress about the deal; the second vote would be to defeat a resolution of approval of the deal; and a third vote would be on a measure which would eliminate Obama’s ability to waive economic sanctions on Iran.
