Congress Iran

The Senate Will Hold 1 Iran Vote While the House Holds 3

Written by SK Ashby

While House Republicans have scheduled three votes on the Iran deal, none of which will prevent the peace agreement from taking effect, Senate Republicans are holding just one vote on a measure of disapproval.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has moved the initial cloture vote up to today rather than wait for tomorrow.

The Senate’s reached an agreement to hold a key procedural vote on disapproving of the Iran deal Thursday afternoon.

After dueling objections over vote thresholds for a final passage vote on the resolution that would disapprove of the international agreement with Iran regarding its nuclear development, senators agreed to move up a debate-limiting cloture vote to 3:45 p.m.

To make a long story short, Senate Democrats can filibuster the cloture vote today and that will be the end of it. House Republicans can hold their show votes tomorrow and if neither chamber takes further action before next Thursday, the Iran peace deal will take effect.

That is not to say the GOP won't file a lawsuit claiming the deal is invalid. I fully expect they will.

For his part, Speaker of the House John Boehner is now spouting the same position scrawled out on a cocktail napkin by the Freedom Caucus in the basement of a Mexican restaurant. According to Boehner, bilateral agreements between the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Iran must be reviewed.

Amusingly, only the Senate will actually attempt to vote on a resolution of disapproval. The House will not vote to disapprove of a deal they strongly disapprove of because, from their point of view, they cannot disapprove of what they have not seen and doing so would relinquish their authority to... disapprove of it in the future after they've seen it.

That may be confusing, but that's the gist of it. They're sure they hate it but they can't say they hate it or they may be prevented from hating it even more.

"I think the plan is just to say that there’s a law on Corker-Cardin, it hasn’t been followed, we can’t ignore it, so to continue on with a vote in light of the administration not adhering to the law would be erroneous and really usurp the authority of Congress,” Mark Meadows told CQ Roll Call on Tuesday night after an HFC meeting in the basement of Tortilla Coast.