'We have an opportunity to do something that is a landmark piece of legislation,' Corker said. | M.Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO Senate overwhelmingly passes Iran bill

The Senate passed legislation that would allow Congress to review and potentially reject a nuclear deal with Iran on Thursday afternoon as senators looked to put an end to acrimonious floor debate.

The bill passed 98-1 after a messy floor fight largely prevented opponents of President Barack Obama’s nuclear negotiations with Iran from offering amendments.


The underlying measure would allow Congress to reject the lifting of legislative sanctions on Iran and force the administration to regularly certify Iran is following the terms of any nuclear deal.

The administration is currently negotiating the final details of a non-proliferation agreement with Tehran, after talks produced an interim framework in early April. The White House has set a June 30 deadline for finalizing the deal.

If a deal is finalized, the administration would have to transmit the details to Congress, at which point lawmakers would have the opportunity to vote to approve or prevent the lifting of congressionally imposed sanctions.

“We’ve worked hard to create a great bipartisan balance. And we have an opportunity to do something that is a landmark piece of legislation,” Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said of his triumph over Democratic reluctance and Obama’s veto threat. “No bill, no review. No bill, no oversight. The American people want [Congress] on their behalf to ensure that Iran is accountable.”

The bill now goes to the House, where Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) supports its passage.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), an ardent opponent of talks with Tehran, was the only senator to vote against the bill.

Though an internal GOP dispute threatened to drag out final passage until next week, all 100 senators reached an agreement to pass the bill on Thursday afternoon. That deal came as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) eyes finishing a package of trade bills and extend expiring highway and surveillance laws — all before the Memorial Day recess.

Conservative Republican Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana dropped his threat on Thursday to drag out consideration of the Iran measure, which enjoys strong bipartisan support. Vitter blocked the adoption of noncontroversial amendments submitted by his colleagues, but won’t stand in the way of the bill’s final passage, his spokesman said.

Without the agreement to finish the bill Thursday, the legislation’s final consideration could have been delayed until as late as Tuesday evening, aides said, potentially complicating the Senate’s calendar. But all 100 senators agreed to delay a vote to break a filibuster from Thursday morning until after private party lunches.

With that extra time, leaders got buy-in from their caucuses to wrap th ings up quickly despite complaints from conservatives that the chamber never voted on amendments that would have forced Iran to recognize Israel or toughen the legislation’s compliance requirements.

While Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said this week the legislation is “prioritizing bipartisan compromise over our national security,” McConnell sought to blunt those attacks on Thursday morning, arguing the legislation was far better than the alternative: no congressional say at all.

Despite his concerns, Cruz ended up voting for the bill.

Though Cardin and Corker struck a deal that forced Obama to rescind his veto threat and got the vast majority of the Senate aboard, the bill ran into major difficulties on the floor. The latest scuffle came late Wednesday, when Vitter tried to modify his amendment that would require an analysis of nuclear inspection programs for Tehran, only to be rebuffed by Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Ben Cardin (D-Md.).

Cardin argued that Republicans had ruined the orderly amendment process, but Vitter said that was a “bunch of bull,” adding that he planned to fight any efforts to adopt uncontroversial amendments into the bill and swiftly wrap up the legislation.

And Vitter blasted Cardin and Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) for not opening up the amendment process on the bill.

“This has been a determined, choreographed effort to close the door of an open amendment process and to demand leverage so that every amendment has to be worked out. You know what ‘worked out’ means? That means they get a veto, we don’t get a vote,” Vitter said as he unloaded on Cardin. “If the endgame here is to work out amendments to Sen. Cardin or anyone else’s satisfaction and they get a veto, they can stop their work on that right now. Because I am objecting.”

Only Republicans filed amendments, many of which would have blown up the veto-proof support for the legislation, and it’s been more than a week since the Senate took its only two amendment votes. Subsequently, Cotton and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) tried to force votes on requiring a stricter crackdown on Iran’s nuclear program and forcing Tehran to recognize Israel.

The maneuver ended negotiations between Corker and Democrats for further amendment votes and began the bill’s limp toward passage without major alterations demanded by conservatives.

McConnell could have tried to end debate earlier — allowing more time for his efforts to pass trade legislation — but he chose to discuss the impasse on Iran amendments with his caucus before moving the bill toward passage. The blocking of further amendments caused some of the bill’s supporters to cry foul about the process and the substance of the bill.

Though Cruz co-sponsored the Iran bill in April, on the same day Corker and Cardin struck a deal to alleviate Democratic concerns that the bill undermined President Barack Obama’s ongoing nuclear talks with Iran, Cruz is now publicly ripping the legislation as toothless.

“I’m here to tell you that as the legislation stands, this legislation is unlikely to stop a bad Iran deal. The problem is an all-too-familiar one here in Washington, D.C.,” Cruz said in a lengthy speech. The bill “contains a provision inserted at the insistence of Senate Democrats which will allow Congress to appear to vote against the deal while tacitly allowing it to go into effect.”

Though McConnell lamented on Thursday morning the political realities of a veto threat and the need for Democratic support in the Senate, he argued the bill was worthy of the Senate’s support.

“If we didn’t face the threats of filibusters or the blocking of amendments or the specter of presidential vetoes, this bill would be a heck of a lot stronger,” McConnell said. “The response to this should not be to give the American people no say at all … on a deal with Iran.”