Action Alert: Call to Oppose the Corker Bill on Iran

 In Action Alert

Next week a bill that could thwart diplomacy with Iran could be voted on. [i]

I’m sure you saw the big splash made by the Senate Republicans’ open letter to Iran. Papers across the U.S. condemned the letter calling it “shocking” and “reckless”.

But if the letter displayed a high-profile desire to torpedo delicate talks in progress, this less-blatant bill has the power to bring that diplomacy-busting desire to fruition.

This bill, by Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn), would grease the skids for a politicized snap vote by Congress on an Iran deal shortly after any deal is successfully concluded. Unlike the Republican  letter to Iran, this bill has some Democratic support, and that’s what makes it so dangerous.

By setting up a Congressional veto of the deal by Congress, the bill’s passage could undermine U.S. diplomats who are near the finish line. Iran could look at the bill and feel that the U.S. can’t deliver on  promises. Iran could harden positions or even walk away from the table.

In a strongly worded letter to Senator Corker the White House warned that the bill would: “likely have a profoundly negative impact on negotiations – emboldening Iranian hard-liners, inviting a counter-productive response from the Iranian majiles [parliament]; differentiating the U.S. position from our allies; and once again calling into question our ability to negotiate this deal.”[ii]

Can you click here to use our special call-in tool today? The tool lets you know:

1) Who to call; 2) What to say and 3) If you want … it lets you jot down a couple notes on what you find out from the office. That information is invaluable for our lobbying work.

[i] Corker Optimistic Bill Iran Bill Will Pass Next Week, The Hill, 3/17/15

[ii] With New Letters D.C. Showdown on Iran Roils On, Huffington Post, 3/17/15

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Showing 2 comments
  • Patricia P Tursi, Ph.D.
    Reply

    This is not just a Corker bill. It is co-sponsored with Menendez who is a Democrat. Together they both sponsored a bill supporting Ukraine and calling for more sanctions against Russia. This is dangerous. They also wrote a letter to Boehner requesting that Ukraine President Poroshenko speak before Congress similar to Netanyahu. Congress wants to take over the presidency and has been doing well with this plan. The issue here is that Democrats that support Republican agendas should run as Republicans. Obama has been also beating the war drums with Putin and I guess that this is associated with BRICS which is also reportedly setting up a monetary system that would bypass the dollar. Also, Biden is pushing fracking in Ukraine…war against the environment. I request that you not leave out Democrats and when calling our Republican Senators, it would help to point the finger at Menendez as well as Corker. Patricia Patterson Tursi, Ph.D.

  • Jon Rainwater
    Reply

    Hi Patricia,

    You’re completely right Patricia about making sure ALL legislators get held accountable for supporting these things. At Peace Action West we agree it’s worth pointing out that Democrats are involved in this bill. In fact, if you go to our very next blog post about this issue (a piece that was published in the Huffington Post) we mention Menendez as right there with Corker. As a factual matter as per the formal records on the bill, Senator Corker is in fact the author of the bill and Senator Menendez is an original cosponsor along with other Democrats: Kaine, Donnelly, Heitkamp, Nelson. So it’s not incorrect to just mention Corker as this one piece does. (Corker is really the one driving this the most politically as well, Menendez has been more associated with other bad bills.) In fact, we have consistently called out Mr. Menendez, not only in the piece posted an hour after this one, but also in piece after piece that opposes the Menendez sanctions bills like S. 1881 last year and S. 269 this year. And if you look at some of the alerts we’ve sent on this issue we’ve made very clear that Democrats who support this agenda will suffer at the polls and we will be watching. We’re doing a petition campaign on this with Americans for Democratic Action and Progressive Democrats of America that makes this very point.

    So I think we’re very much on the same page.

    As an aside, another issue we are very much on the same side about is the Ukraine issue. We oppose U.S. arms sales to Ukraine and other actions that could cause an escalation of military tensions between the U.S. and the E.U. on the one hand and with Russia.

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