Trying to head off a vote on legislation that would require Congressional review of a nuclear deal with Iran, the Obama administration is lobbying senators not to support the bill, Politico reported yesterday.

The White House is moving aggressively to limit Democratic defections on Capitol Hill that could undermine its negotiations with Iran, dispatching senior officials and President Barack Obama himself to lobby senators against taking action before a nuclear deal with the rogue regime is reached.

Senior administration officials have asked Senate Democrats to notify the White House if they are considering signing onto a bill drafted by Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) that would give Congress the ability to accept or reject any nuclear deal. The push, several Senate sources said, is to prevent a veto-proof majority from building by heading off any fresh Democratic support for the plan and persuade supporters to keep their powder dry until the conclusion of multilateral negotiations with Iran.

The lobbying effort has come from all quarters. Obama has spoken directly with Democratic senators on the Foreign Relations Committee, including Ben Cardin of Maryland. Other senators who are weighing whether to join the legislative effort, such as Joe Manchin of West Virginia, have been briefed by the likes of Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew have reached out directly to senators, according to sources on Capitol Hill.

Earlier this week, Iranian officials signaled that they would not accept a deal that would require them to dismantle the Fordow enrichment facility or to stop building the heavy water reactor at Arak. Last week Iran’s foreign minister and nuclear negotiator Mohammad Javad Zarif leaked plans that the deal being discussed would involve having the United Nations Security Council lift all sanctions imposed on Iran for its illicit nuclear program.

Although President Barack Obama promised in November 2013, when the Joint Plan of Action was signed, that he would “continue to work closely with Congress,” legislators have been frustrated by reports late last year that the president intended to bypass Congress when it came to any nuclear deal with Iran.

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