Ken Berwitz
The Obama Administration has not complied with the legalrequirement that it provide Congress “any additional materials”related to the Iran deal, including “side agreements, implementingmaterials, documents, and guidance, technical or other understandings, and anyrelated agreements, whether entered into or implemented prior to the agreementor to be entered into or implemented in the future.” The Administrationhas not given Congress a key side agreement between Iran and the InternationalAtomic Energy Agency, one which describes how key questions about the possiblemilitary dimensions of Iran\’s nuclear program will be resolved, as well as howthe verification regime will work.
Congress should not accept this evasion of the law by the ObamaAdministration. Congress should insist on the text of this and any other sideagreements. Lacking this, Congress can and should take the position that theIran deal has not been properly submitted to Congress to review, and thereforethat the president has no authority to waive or suspend sanctions.
We understand the temptation of leadership to get to a vote on aresolution of disapproval and then to move on to other votes. But the Iran dealisn\’t just another legislative issue where some corner-cutting by theAdministration is to be accepted with a brief expression of discontent followedby a weary sigh of resignation.
The Iran deal is the most important foreign policy issue thisCongress will have before it. Congress should rise to the occasion and insiston its prerogative — and the American people\’s prerogative — to see the wholedeal. The first resolution the House should consider when it returns tomorrowshould be one stating that Congress has not been provided the material itneeds, that the Iran deal has not been properly submitted to Congress, andtherefore that the president has no authority to waive or suspend sanctions onIran.
Nothing further from me. This speaks for itself, and doesn\’t need my help.
