Senate GOP Leader Expects ‘Robust’ Amendment Debate on Iran Nuclear Deal
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday he wants to pass a “sensible” bipartisan bill giving Congress the right to review an international nuclear agreement with Iran but made clear he expects lawmakers to introduce a wide variety of amendments to the legislation.
“I still expect to see a vigorous debate this week. I still expect to see a robust amendment process,” McConnell said in a Senate speech before debate on the bill began on Tuesday.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 19-0 last week for a compromise version of the Iran Nuclear Review Act in a rare display of bipartisan unity in the deeply divided Congress.
But some U.S. Republicans have introduced amendments seeking to toughen the bill, raising the possibility of a partisan battle that could complicate the measure’s chances of passing. Many Republicans worry that Democratic President Barack Obama is so eager to reach a nuclear agreement with Iran that he will allow the Tehran government to develop a nuclear weapon.
Before the compromise, Obama had threatened to veto the bill, saying that some of its provisions threatened delicate international negotiations with Iran.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO