WASHINGTON

Iran deal supporters seek to avoid Obama veto

Erin Kelly
USA TODAY
Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md.

WASHINGTON — Emboldened by growing Senate support for the Iran nuclear agreement, supporters of the deal are  pushing to get 41 Democrats on board to prevent the Senate from voting on a resolution disapproving of the pact.

The action would prevent President Obama from having to veto the resolution  Republican leaders are pushing.

As of Wednesday, Obama had secured the 34 votes needed to prevent the Senate from overriding his veto of a disapproval resolution. Supporters would like to avoid a veto battle altogether.

There are  10 Democratic senators who have not announced whether they will support or oppose the pact with Iran. If at least seven of them join  the 34 who have announced their support of the agreement, Republicans would fall short of the 60 votes they need to bring the resolution to the Senate floor.

The House is likely to pass the resolution of disapproval, so the Senate is key to the outcome.

"Republicans want to force the Iran deal to go through a lengthy, messy veto override process," said Eden James, political director of Democracy for America, one of the liberal groups lobbying for approval of the Iran deal. "By dragging this fight out, they're hoping they can embarrass the president and diminish his credibility overseas — all the while continuing their fear-mongering with the public at home."

James said activists would press the undecided Democratic senators to support Obama and "put a stop to the circus that pro-war Republicans are hoping to create around the Iran deal."

Jamal Abdi, executive director of the National Iranian American Council, which supports the nuclear agreement, said passage of a resolution of disapproval by the Senate could undermine the deal.

"Nearly the entire Republican presidential field has pledged to nullify the agreement if they take the White House," he said. "The opposition is now hoping to set the stage for further efforts to undermine and eventually unravel the deal, and passage of a disapproval resolution could provide that opening."

A spokesman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which opposes the Iran deal, said Democrats should not block a vote on such an important issue.

"On an issue of this significance to the national security of the United States, the American people deserve a direct up or down vote on the agreement," spokesman Marshall Wittmann said. "Preventing that vote would be contrary to the spirit of the Corker-Cardin legislation that was passed by a near unanimous margin by the Senate."

The legislation by Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Ben Cardin, D-Md., gave Congress the power to review the nuclear agreement with Iran. It passed the Senate 98-1 in May.

Patrick Dorton, a spokesman for Citizens for a Nuclear Free Iran, which opposes the deal, said a vote on the agreement is "a once-in-a-generation vote" for pro-Israel activists. Israel has urged the United States to reject the pact.

"If you believe the deal is good, then you shouldn't fear an up or down vote," he said. "It deserves fair consideration in the U.S. Senate."

Republican senators pushed back hard against the deal Wednesday while acknowledging that the Senate will not be able to override a presidential veto now that Obama has secured the votes of 34 Democratic senators. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., was the 34th senator to come out in support of the pact. She announced her decision Wednesday.

"Vote number 34 represents a very good day for the Iranian regime," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a presidential candidate who opposes the Iran deal. "The Iranians have now secured enough votes in the Senate to ensure they have a pathway to a bomb, the missile to deliver it and the money to pay for it. The only reason the ayatollah and his henchmen aren't dancing in the streets of Tehran is they don't believe in dancing."

Another GOP presidential candidate, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, vowed to overturn the agreement if he is elected.

"If I’m the president of the United States, in my first day in office, we will lift what the president is doing," Rubio said Wednesday on Fox News. "We will reimpose sanctions and, in fact, I will ask Congress to increase sanctions, and we will back it up with a credible threat of military force."

Republicans say Iran cannot be trusted to comply with the deal, which calls for the United States to lift economic sanctions against Iran in return for Iran's agreement not to develop nuclear weapons.

Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday that the agreement would prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb.

"Without this agreement, the Iranians would have several potential pathways to a bomb," Kerry said. "With it, they won't have any."

In a statement, Mikulski, who will retire after the 2016 elections, said, "“No deal is perfect, especially one negotiated with the Iranian regime. I have concluded that this Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action is the best option available to block Iran from having a nuclear bomb."

Tuesday, two other Democrats, Sens. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Chris Coons of Delaware, endorsed the agreement.

The 10 Democratic senators who remained undecided as of Wednesday were: Michael Bennet of Colorado, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Maria Cantwell of Washington, Ben Cardin of Maryland, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Gary Peters of Michigan, Mark Warner of Virginia and Ron Wyden of Oregon.

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