White House OKs Senate's Iran bill
President Barack Obama is expected to sign the congressional review of the Iranian deal into law.
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration signaled on April 14 that it could live with compromise legislation giving Congress a say in its negotiations with Iran, paving the way for a floor vote within weeks.
The green light from the White House came after Democrats and Republicans worked out a compromise that would shorten the period for the review and weaken language linking sanctions relief to Iran's rejection of terrorism. President Barack Obama had promised to veto the bill without those changes, arguing that it could derail any chance of reaching a final agreement by this summer.
"The president would be willing to sign the proposed compromise that is working its way through the committee today,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said at an April 14 briefing. "Despite the things about it that we don’t like, enough substantial changes have been made."
Earnest made the comments ahead of a markup by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during which several Republicans proposed amendments to toughen the compromise deal. Several were withdrawn and only one was introduced, to revert to the original the terrorism language; it was defeated 13-6, and the committee ended up voting unanimously in favor of the original compromise.
