Congressional debate shifts to implementation of Iran agreement
Fans and foes of the deal are already battling over the day after.
Before the US Congress even gets a chance to vote on the Iran nuclear deal, its critics and defenders are already battling over how it will be implemented.
The agreement's survival was cemented Sept. 8 when three more Democratic senators announced their support, bringing the total to 41, enough to uphold President Barack Obama's veto of congressional attempts to kill it and perhaps to prevent a resolution of disapproval from coming to a vote at all. Only one senator, Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., remains in play.
As a result, debate has already shifted to congressional oversight of the deal.
The top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., hit the ground running late last week with a draft bill laying out a role for Congress in reviewing the agreement's implementation and beefing up support for Israel. Al-Monitor obtained a 35-page "discussion draft" of the bill, which was first reported over the weekend by the liberal foreign policy blog LobeLog.
