President Barack Obama’s decision to offer support for the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015, which mandates Congressional oversight of any Iranian nuclear deal and was passed unanimously by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday, was prompted by the likelihood that the president’s veto of the bill would be overridden, The Times of Israel reported today.
Supporters and opponents of the bill alike questioned the administration’s narrative and hinted the move was more likely spun as a way to get the White House on board a bill apparently steaming toward passage no matter how many veto threats the president makes.
“Over the course of the morning someone in the White House counted to 67, and then they counted to 290, and then they decided they were better off trying to spin a reversal now than a veto override later,” quipped Omri Ceren, press director at The Israel Project [which publishes The Tower], referring to the number of votes needed for a super majority in the Senate and House, which would override a veto.
For weeks, President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry had campaigned vociferously against the bill, drafted by Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ).
“As late as Tuesday morning,” the Times noted, “Kerry was on Capitol Hill briefing senators on talks with Iran,” in an effort to defeat the bill.
According to David Brog, spokesman for Christians United for Israel, the unanimous committee vote was “a clear victory for all who have argued that Congress has a duty to review any nuclear deal with Iran.”
The Times also quoted Jamal Abdi, a spokesman for the National Iranian American Council, who said that the compromise reached yesterday “does not change the fundamental problems with this bill. It still threatens to derail the talks and kill a deal, and we remain opposed to it.”
Max Boot, writing at Commentary, described the dynamic:
Today Corker managed to convince every member of the Foreign Relations Committee to endorse a bill that would give Congress the right to approve any lifting of sanctions as a result of the nuclear deal. So thoroughly did he manage to win over Democrats that Obama, facing a veto-proof majority, had no choice but to concede that he would sign the legislation.
Reuters portrayed the president’s announcement of support of the bill as “conced[ing] … that Congress will have the power to review a nuclear deal with Iran, reluctantly giving in to pressure from Republicans and some in his own party after they crafted a rare compromise demanding a say.”
An editorial in The New York Times which was harshly critical of the bill, also acknowledged that “Mr. Obama initially threatened to veto the legislation, but he backed off rather than face a bipartisan override of his veto.”
Legislative sources were quoted yesterday saying that the bill had veto-proof support in both houses of Congress.
[Photo: The White House / YouTube ]