WASHINGTON -- Senate proponents of a bill empowering Congress to review and potentially reject any Iran nuclear deal must first win a battle with some colleagues determined to change the legislation in ways that could sink it.
"Anybody who monkeys with this bill is going to run into a buzz saw," Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina warned ahead of this week's debate.
Also trying to discourage any changes, Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey urged senators to stick with the plan as it emerged from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The debate comes as negotiators from the U.S. and five other nations are rushing to finalize, by the end of June, an agreement requiring Iran to curb its nuclear program in exchange for relief from sanctions choking its economy. The parties will meet again this week on the sidelines of a United Nations conference in New York.
The bill was approved, 19-0, by the Senate committee and has 62 co-sponsors from both parties.
Some lawmakers, however, want changes that could cost them the support of President Barack Obama, who grudgingly backed the measure, and his fellow Democrats.
If there is a final deal with Iran, Obama can use his executive authority to ease some sanctions on his own and work with the European Union and the U.N. to lift others. Obama also can waive sanctions that Congress has imposed on Iran, but he cannot formally lift them.
The bill would block Obama from waiving congressional sanctions for at least 30 days while lawmakers weigh in.
If 60 senators vote to disapprove the deal, Obama would lose his waiver power altogether. The president is betting he will not.
If Congress disapproves, the president will likely respond with a veto. As long as he can get more than one-third of the Senate to side with him, he can prevent his veto from being overridden.
Backers of the bill are trying to keep lawmakers focused on how it would give Congress a say on a critical national security issue. They say the measure is not meant to be about how Iran increasingly is wielding influence in the Middle East, its support of terrorist groups or human-rights violations. They worry that adding too many divisive amendments would cause Democrats to drop their support.
Even so, some senators are proposing amendments to pressure Iran to end its support of such groups, stop threatening to destroy Israel and recognize its right to exist, and release U.S. citizens held in Iran.
Other amendments would prevent sanctions relief if Iran cooperates with nuclear-armed North Korea or until international nuclear inspectors are guaranteed access to Iranian military sites.
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, a presidential candidate, has an amendment with Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., that would require Congress to sign off on any final nuclear deal, not just approve or disapprove of it. An amendment from Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., would make any deal a treaty, thus needing to be ratified by two-thirds of the Senate.
"The president should have to get 67 votes for a major nuclear arms agreement with an outlaw regime," said Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.
Cotton wants to lower the number of votes needed to reject a deal from 60 to 51. That means opponents of any deal would need only Republican votes to sink it.
He also wants to see amendments requiring that Congress be notified of any violations of an agreement, not just ones that are legally defined as material breaches.
A third set of amendments would prevent sanctions relief until they meet goals the U.S. established at the beginning of the negotiations. Critics of the talks claim the administration has backtracked and agreed to too many concessions for Iran.
Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, the committee chairman and a co-author of the bill, said he, too, would like to see Iran change its behavior and he wants any final deal to be a good one that will prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. But he said that's not what the bill is about.
"This bill is about the process," Corker said. "It's not a bill about the content of any deal, and hopefully, that's how the bill will remain."
The State Department said Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif would meet today in New York, where both men are participating in a conference at the U.N. on the nuclear nonproliferation treaty. In addition to his meeting with Zarif, Kerry will also see the foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan at the U.N., the department said.
Calls for reporter's release
Meanwhile, in an appearance on CNN's Reliable Sources with Brian Stelter on Sunday morning, Washington Post Executive Editor Martin Baron said the paper is doing everything it can to free its reporter in Tehran, who has been in prison for nine months.
Baron has been rallying for the release of the Post's Tehran bureau chief, Jason Rezaian, who has been charged with espionage and other crimes, including collecting classified information.
"There has been no evidence provided by the Iranian government that he engaged in espionage or did anything other than report on what was happening in that country," Baron said. "In fact, most of his coverage focused on the culture and daily life of people in Iran."
Baron said the Post is talking to U.S. officials, who have had conversations with the Iranian government about getting Rezaian released. The paper is also pleading its case to other governments in the region and elsewhere, but Baron said there are no prospects for an imminent release.
Rezaian's imprisonment came up at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner Saturday night, with Obama saying the government would not rest until the journalist is freed.
"For nine months, Jason has been in prison in Tehran for nothing more than writing about the hopes and fears of the Iranian people," Obama said.
The president told the room full of reporters, many of whom were donning "Free Jason" pins, that he had spoken with Rezaian's brother, Ali, who was at the dinner.
"I have told him personally that I will not rest until we bring him home to his family, safe and sound," Obama said.
The president is among a growing chorus of government officials, including Kerry, urging Iran to free Rezaian.
A group of Republican senators pressed the administration to make Rezaian's release a condition for a nuclear agreement with Iran. But the administration has been averse to tying the imprisonment with the effort to block Iran's ability to build nuclear weapons.
Rezaian, 39, has been a reporter for the Post since 2012. He and his journalist wife, Yeganeh Salehi, were arrested July 22. She was later released on bail, but Rezaian has remained in custody.
The Revolutionary Court, the venue for national-security cases, took up the couple's cases. Although the court has never publicly disclosed the charges against Rezaian, his attorney has said that the charges stem from inquiries and contacts he made as a journalist.
Asked about the motivation for the arrest, Baron said: "There has been plenty of speculation that there is some sort of conflict between the Revolutionary Guard and the government of President [Hassan] Rouhani and his foreign ministers, but we don't know that for sure. We're not in a position to speculate. We're mystified by it."
No date has been set for the trial, but Rezaian's attorney has said that it may begin in the next few weeks. A judge known for imposing harsh sentences, including the death penalty for anti-government protesters, is scheduled to hear the case.
"It's a terrifying situation and an entirely unjust situation," Baron said of Rezaian's imprisonment. "There is absolutely no justification for this happening."
Baron said Rezaian has been held longer than any other journalist in Iran. The reporter has spent much of the nine months in isolation, where he has suffered health problems and bouts of depression. Baron said Rezaian has been denied the treatment he needs and was granted time to meet with his attorney only in the past week, for 90 minutes.
"That is not a system of justice. That is a system of officially sanctioned injustice. And not a shred of evidence has been provided that he has done anything wrong," Baron said.
Information for this article was contributed by Deb Riechmann and Matthew Lee of The Associated Press and by Danielle Douglas-Gabriel of The Washington Post.
A Section on 04/27/2015