Condoleeza Rice says the Iran deal is "classically an executive agreement and doesn't need to be a treaty... "
The Senate voted 39-57 Tuesday night for an amendment that would have required the upcoming nuclear agreement with Iran to be a treaty needing 67 votes for approval in the Senate. If the amendment submitted by Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin had passed, it most likely would have stripped away much if not most of the bill's Democratic support and guaranteed a veto from President Obama. But, while this one was killed, there are some 60 other amendments to consider, including several poison pills. Republicans have submitted all the amendments.
Although not enthusiastic about it, Obama has given the bill tacit approval, saying he would sign it in its current form. Sen. Bob Corker, the Tennessee Republican who heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has so far been successful, with the help of ranking committee Democrat Ben Cardin of Maryland, in steering the bill past all the shoals. The bill currently has 66 co-sponsors, including 20 Democrats.
“Now look, if I could wave a magic wand, or if all of [a] sudden donkeys flew around the Capitol, I would love for us to have the ability to deem this a treaty,” Corker said. “I really would.”
Corker has personally favored some other amendments, too, including one that would have required President Obama to certify that Iran is not supporting terrorism that harms Americans. But Corker has been all about getting the bill passed, and the certification provision was removed from the original text in order to get more Democratic support. Its deletion was also essential in getting Obama to say he would sign the bill.
The Johnson amendment was attached to S. 615—The Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act. That bill, passed by the Foreign Relations Committee on a unanimous vote April 14, would give Congress 30 days to review and, if it so chose, reject any deal curtailing Iran's nuclear program in exchange for lifting sanctions. If Obama vetoed such a rejection, it would take 67 senators to override. While there might be enough senators to do so, Speaker John Boehner has said he doesn't have enough override votes in the House if Congress did, in fact, reject an agreement, which is expected to be completely negotiated by June 30. Come below the fold for more on the bill's prospects.
Among the critics of the Johnson amendment was a familiar person from the Bush administration:
The amendment failed just hours after former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who was national security adviser under President George W. Bush, said any Iran nuclear deal is an executive agreement that doesn't need to be a treaty. "The proposed Iranian nuclear agreement is classically an executive agreement and doesn't need to be a treaty with advice and consent of the Senate," she said. "But Congress should be able to opine, given that congressionally mandated sanctions would have to be lifted."
"By trying to deem this is a treaty is a losing effort," said Corker, who consulted with Rice. "In essence, it will destroy our ability to have any say so in one of the biggest geopolitical events of our time."
In its first 200 years, the U.S. Congress approved more than 1,500 treaties. But a University of Michigan
study in 2009 by Glen S. Krutz and Jeffrey S. Peake found that while 52.9 percent of international agreements were executive agreements between 1839 and 1889, 94.3 percent of them were executive agreements from 1939 to 1989. The latter ratio has remained intact in the quarter-century since.
Corker's shepherding has a ways to go. Still to be considered are deal-killing amendments requiring that before any agreement can be signed, Iran must recognize Israel and release U.S. prisoners. Another amendment would attempt to revive the provision requiring Obama to certify that Iran is not supporting terrorism that harms Americans, an impossible requirement.