Republican dig at Iran deal jeopardizes effort to keep government open
Congressional efforts to ban future purchases of heavy water from Iran could complicate efforts to avoid a government shutdown.
![General view of Uranium Conversion Facility (UCF) in Isfahan, about 420 km (261 miles) south of Tehran, August 8, 2005. Iran resumed uranium conversion on Monday at its facility near Isfahan, a move [EU officials have warned will probably see its nuclear case sent to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions].
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p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Calibri; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000} span.s1 {font-kerning: none} A Republican maneuver affecting the nuclear deal with Iran could complicate efforts to avert a US government shutdown Friday.
The House of Representatives is taking up spending legislation this week that would keep the government open until early next year. The bill incorporates measures agreed to in the House earlier this summer, including a provision that stipulates that no US funds “may be used to purchase heavy water from Iran.”
The measure is but the latest example of US policymakers undermining some of the financial benefits Tehran hoped to derive from the 2015 agreement. The provision also gives Democrats additional incentive to kill the spending bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), in the Senate, where many lawmakers already have objections because it only funds nondefense programs through January.
"I don’t think we should be doing much in the way of legislating in the CR unless it’s something that’s had some serious consideration,” Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, who caucuses with the Democrats, told Al-Monitor.
