Israel Matzav

Congress leaps into action

It wasn't just the P 5+1 who jumped into action as a result of the Iran - Brazil - Turkey nuclear deal. Congress has decided that now is (finally) the time to press ahead with its own unilateral sanctions.

Congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle and in both chambers pledged to swiftly reconcile the two versions of the Iran sanctions legislation, one sponsored by Senate Banking Committee chairman Chris Dodd, D-CT, and another led by House Foreign Affairs Committee head Howard Berman, D-CA [pictured. CiJ].

"We hope it will move out of conference this week and be on the floor next week," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-MD, said Tuesday.

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

Inside the conference process, there's a lot going on. Conferees and non-conferees alike have been holding meetings on the legislation both at the staff and member level. Dodd and Berman have been engaged with the administration to work on the fixes the Obama team wants to see in the bill.

The drive to complete the bill quickly, ahead of the U.N. Security Council process, is bipartisan and bicameral. Republicans don't believe the U.N. language will be tough enough and are resisting administration efforts to have Congress wait for the U.N. track to play out. Democrats don't want to be pegged as weak on national security, and are cautiously trying to accommodate the administration's request for a delay.

But leading Republicans are growing impatient.

"I hope that the Democrats and the administration would move forward with that as quickly as possible. They clearly have been stalling for a long period of time," Senate Armed Services committee ranking member John McCain, R-AZ, told The Cable.

And there could be real consequences for Democrats if they don't complete the conference by May 28, when the Memorial Day recess begins. Aides said that House Republicans agreed to hold off from leveling public admonishments of the conference process, known as "motions to instruct conferees," if and only if the conference finished its work before the recess.

What that means is that after the recess, the House GOP can and probably will force votes as often as every day on the issue, creating news stories about the delay in the legislation and forcing Democratic lawmakers to take uncomfortable votes that could highlight differences they have with the White House.

Just do it already.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:54 AM