WASHINGTON — The Senate takes up Iran legislation this coming week, offering a crucial test of whether a bipartisan compromise can survive the chamber's toughest Iran hawks.
Legislation empowering Congress to review the bill cleared the Foreign Relations panel unanimously on April 14 after Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., reached a deal with Democrats that the White House said it could live with. Hawkish lawmakers — including freshman Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and presidential candidate Marco Rubio, R-Fla. — have promised to push amendments requiring Iran to recognize Israel's right to exist and to abandon terrorism and its missile-defense program, with the full backing of conservative luminaries such as William Kristol.