House lawmakers put their demand that Iran abandon uranium enrichment squarely back on the table overnight amid continued congressional concern that the Barack Obama administration is being hoodwinked in its nuclear dealings with Tehran.

The House Armed Services panel passed an amendment to the annual defense bill from Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., that establishes a nonbinding "sense of Congress" that sanctions can only be lifted if Iran "ceases the enrichment of uranium," dismantles its "nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons and ballistic missiles and ballistic missile launch technology" and stops "providing support for acts of international terrorism." The amendment, which passed along a party-line voice vote, was one of several aimed squarely at containing Iran following November's interim agreement with Iran.

"The entire ballgame with Iran's gaining nuclear weapon capability lies in their ability to enrich uranium and produce plutonium," Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz. — the author of stalled legislation authorizing the use of force against Iran if talks fail — said during debate on the amendment. "This Congress has yet to be clearly on record."

The amendment resurrects a debate that had lain dormant since the Senate, bowing to intense pressure from the administration, earlier this year indefinitely postponed action on a bipartisan sanctions bill that would have required a final deal to "dismantle Iran’s illicit nuclear infrastructure." Several US laws and UN resolutions in the past have called for Iran to suspend enrichment, but the administration and others argue that doing so now would derail talks.