This bill was substantially identical to S. 615 of 2/27/15, establishing new congressional oversight procedures of the P5+1–Iran nuclear talks and providing Congress with the means to scupper any deal produced therein. It was introduced by Majority Leader McConnell hours after Israeli PM Netanyahu addressed a joint meeting of Congress calling for congressional oversight on the P5+1’s negotiations with Iran.
The earlier version of the bill was referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when it was introduced, so it would have had to go through a markup and pass a vote before coming to the floor of the Senate. By introducing this bill and putting it directly on the full Senate’s calendar, McConnell employed his powers as majority leader to circumvent the committee process. A group of a 10 senators, including key supporter Robert Menendez (D-NJ), sent a letter of complaint to McConnell calling on him to allow the Senate Foreign Relations Committee its traditional role. Menendez said that he only backed the bill on the understanding that it would go through the committee process. McConnell then cancelled (3/5) a scheduled 3/10 vote on the bill to preserve the bipartisan support Menendez and his cohort provided. After McConnell’s efforts to fast-track the measure through the Senate were stymied, the bill’s backers returned their focus to the original version (see S. 615 for details).
Last major action: 3/9/15 cloture motion on the motion to proceed to the measure withdrawn by unanimous consent.