The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said Tuesday that he’s reached a bipartisan agreement on a bill that would allow congressional review – and possibly overturn - a deal to stem Iran’s nuclear program.
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., speaking on MSNBC’s "Morning Joe," announced that "we have reached a bipartisan agreement that keeps the congressional review process absolutely intact, full of integrity."
Corker indicated in the interview that language has been added to the bill concerning Israel’s right to exist. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who announced his candidacy for president Monday, had an amendment on the issue.
"It's my understanding that we've added some language that accommodates the concerns that worked for us," Corker said.
The Foreign Relations Committee is scheduled to take up the bill Tuesday afternoon that would require President Barack Obama to submit a deal forged with Iran by the administration and five world powers to a congressional review.
Corker didn’t offer specifics Tuesday morning on what he and Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., the foreign relation committee’s ranking Democrat had agreed to. But Democratic aides said the 60-day review period originally called for in the bill has been reduced to 30 days, with some exceptions.
In addition, language has been softened in a provision that initially made lifting sanctions against Iran contingent upon the Tehran government ending support for terrorism.
Obama strongly opposed the initial version of the Corker-Menendez bill, viewing it as an attempt to undermine the Iran deal and to attack his executive power to forge international agreements.
But White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Tuesday that Obama could support the Senate compromise, though he suggested the White House would withhold full support until the newest version was put to a committee vote.
He said the administration still has concerns with the legislation, but that enough changes have been made that Obama could sign it.
"Despite the things about it that we don't like, enough substantial changes have been made that the president would be willing to sign it because it would reflect the kind of compromise that he'd be willing to sign," Earnest said.
The administration continued its sales pitch for the Iran deal Tuesday by sending Secretary of State John Kerry, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz to Capitol Hill to brief senators behind closed doors.
Republicans and Democrats, even those who endorse the nuclear deal, support the bill, saying that congress has a responsibility to weigh in on international deals.
The strongest opposition to the nuclear deal has come from Republicans who’ve complained that it will do little to curtail Iran’s nuclear weapons capability in the long run.
Democrats inclined to favor the nuclear deal – and the Corker-Menendez bill - worry that Republicans are more interested in trying to score political points against Obama than trying to reduce the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran.
"There are many in Congress, in the Senate in particular, who I think with their recent actions have demonstrated they are strongly inclined to prevent the agreement from being resolved or oppose any agreement and seek to defeat it," Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., a member of the foreign relations committee, told reporters Tuesday.
The White House has threatened to veto the bill if it passes Congress. But Democratic aides Tuesday said there appears to be enough Democratic supporters to give the bill a veto-proof majority.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said Monday that if the Senate passes the bill, he will bring it up in the House.