Israel Matzav

Congress agrees to slow down Iran sanctions bill

Well, isn't that just wonderful? Because of all the 'progress' that the Obama administration has made at the United Nations on Iran sanctions, Congress has agreed to slow down its bill.

Despite repeated proclamations by senior leaders in both chambers of Congress and on both sides of the aisle that nothing could stop the Iran sanctions bill, its two lead sponsors announced today that they would delay the conference meant to iron out differences between the House and Senate versions.

"With the progress in negotiations at the Security Council, we believe that our overriding goal of preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability is best served by providing a limited amount of time for those efforts -- and expected follow-on action by the EU at its mid-June summit -- to reach a successful conclusion before we send our bill to the president," Sen. Chris Dodd, D-CT, and Rep. Howard Berman, D-CA, said in a statement Tuesday.

It was only last week that House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-MD, promised to get it done before the Memorial Day recess.

"International sanctions make a lot more sense than unilateral" Dodd said at the time. "But we're not going to retreat from the unilateral sanctions effort."

But today, Dodd and Berman claimed that last week's unveiling of the draft U.N. sanctions resolution by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had convinced them that the Security Council process was actually making progress. They now expect to bring the conference report to be voted on by the entire Congress "in the latter half of June."

What's worse, reports Laura Rozen, is that the stupid Jews are going along:

The pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC endorsed the proposed sequencing and praised Dodd's and Berman's "firm, public commitment to get tough, comprehensive Iran sanctions legislation on the President's desk before the July 4th recess," the group said in a press release. "We urge President Obama to sign and implement that legislation immediately upon its arrival on his desk."

Good luck with that. The only way that Congress is going to pass effective sanctions - unlike the UN variety - is with a veto-proof majority. Dodd and Berman (pictured) are now making sure that won't happen until well into the summer.

What could go wrong?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:24 AM