[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 251 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
114th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. RES. 251
Expressing the sense of the Senate that the congressional review
provision of the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015 does not
apply to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action announced on July 14,
2015, because the President failed to transmit the entire agreement as
required by such Act, and that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action
would only preempt existing Iran sanctions laws as ``the supreme Law of
the Land'' if ratified by the Senate as a treaty with the concurrence
of two thirds of the Senators present pursuant to Article II, section
2, clause 2, of the Constitution or if Congress were to enact new
implementing legislation that supersedes the mandatory statutory
sanctions that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action announced on July
14, 2015, purports to supersede.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
September 10, 2015
Mr. Johnson (for himself, Mr. Toomey, and Mr. Lee) submitted the
following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign
Relations
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the Senate that the congressional review
provision of the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015 does not
apply to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action announced on July 14,
2015, because the President failed to transmit the entire agreement as
required by such Act, and that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action
would only preempt existing Iran sanctions laws as ``the supreme Law of
the Land'' if ratified by the Senate as a treaty with the concurrence
of two thirds of the Senators present pursuant to Article II, section
2, clause 2, of the Constitution or if Congress were to enact new
implementing legislation that supersedes the mandatory statutory
sanctions that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action announced on July
14, 2015, purports to supersede.
Whereas the United States Government has enacted and enforced multiple statutes
and regulations that impose comprehensive sanctions on Iran and on
companies and individuals doing business with Iran;
Whereas Article II, section 2, clause 2 of the Constitution provides that the
President ``shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the
Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present
concur'';
Whereas Article VI, clause 2 of the Constitution provides that ``This
Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in
Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under
the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the
Land'';
Whereas, on April 28, 2015, 39 Senators voted for Senate Amendment 1150, the
purpose of which was ``To declare that any agreement reached by the
President relating to the nuclear program of Iran is deemed a treaty
that is subject to the advice and consent of the Senate'';
Whereas, according to subsection (a)(1) of section 135 of the Atomic Energy Act
of 1954 (42 U.S.C. 2160e), as added by section 2 of the Iran Nuclear
Agreement Review Act of 2015, which the President signed into law as
Public Law 114-17 on May 22, 2015, ``[n]ot later than 5 calendar days
after reaching an agreement with Iran relating to the nuclear program of
Iran, the President shall transmit to the appropriate congressional
committees and leadership the agreement, as defined in subsection
(h)(1), including all related materials and annexes'';
Whereas subsection (h)(1) of such section 135 defines the ``agreement'' that the
President ``shall'' transmit to Congress not later than 5 calendar days
after reaching an agreement with Iran to include all ``annexes,
appendices, codicils, side agreements, implementing materials,
documents, and guidance, technical or other understandings, and any
related agreements, whether entered into or implemented prior to the
agreement or to be entered into or implemented in the future'';
Whereas such section 135 further provides that a 60-day congressional review
period will commence upon the President's transmittal of the agreement,
including all annexes, appendices, codicils, side agreements,
implementing materials, documents, and guidance, technical or other
understandings, and any related agreements, whether entered into or
implemented prior to the agreement or to be entered into or implemented
in the future;
Whereas, on July 14, 2015, the Secretary of State announced a multilateral
agreement with Iran and six other nations, labeled the Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in Annex II of which the United
States purports to agree that ``[t]he United States commits to cease the
application, and to seek such legislative action as may be appropriate
to terminate, or modify to effectuate the termination of, all nuclear-
related sanctions as specified in Sections 4.1-4.9 below,'' and Sections
4.1-4.9 specifies the following United States statutes: ``the Iran
Sanctions Act of 1996 (ISA), as amended by Section 102 of the
Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010
(CISADA) and Sections 201-207 and 311 of the Iran Threat Reduction and
Syria Human Rights Act of 2012 (TRA); CISADA, as amended by Sections
214-216, 222, 224, 311-312, 402-403, and 605 of TRA and Section 1249 of
the Iran Freedom and Counter-Proliferation Act of 2012 (IFCA); the
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 (NDAA), as
amended by Sections 503-504 of TRA and Section 1250 of IFCA'';
Whereas the United States statutes specified in sections 4.1 through 4.9 of
Annex II, of which the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action purports to
provide for United States agreement to ``cease the application'', may
only be superseded by a Senate-ratified treaty or by new legislation;
Whereas the United States statutes and regulations concerning Iran sanctions
include section 2 of CISADA, in which Congress made comprehensive
findings of fact concerning Iran, which remain true and accurate today,
including that ``[t]he illicit nuclear activities of the Government of
Iran, combined with its development of unconventional weapons and
ballistic missiles and its support for international terrorism,
represent a threat to the security of the United States, its strong ally
Israel, and other allies of the United States around the world'';
Whereas Congress also found in section 2(10) of CISADA that ``[e]conomic
sanctions imposed pursuant to the provisions of this Act, the Iran
Sanctions Act of 1996, as amended by this Act, and the International
Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.), and other
authorities available to the United States to impose economic sanctions
to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, are necessary to
protect the essential security interests of the United States'';
Whereas, based on the above and other similar statutory findings since 1979, the
United States enacted ISA, CISADA, section 1245 of the National Defense
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 (Public Law 112-81), the IFCA,
and the TRA, as well as various preceding statutes that each of the
named laws amended over time, and, taken as a whole, those Acts of
Congress directed and authorized the Secretaries of State, Treasury,
Defense, and Energy, and other Federal agencies, to promulgate and
enforce implementing regulations, which they have done under the
guidance of multiple executive orders and under close congressional
oversight;
Whereas the Department of Justice has prosecuted, or entered into non-
prosecution agreements with, corporations and individuals for Iran
sanctions violations under this body of law;
Whereas existing legislation includes mandatory sanctions that may only be
repealed or amended by law, including CISADA section 104, which provides
that the Secretary of the Treasury shall prescribe regulations to
prohibit or restrict correspondent accounts for foreign financial
institutions that knowingly engage in a prohibited activity, and TRA
section 202, which provides that the President shall impose statutorily
prescribed sanctions with respect to persons that own, operate, control,
or insure vessels used to transport crude oil from Iran to another
country;
Whereas the President's authority to waive statutorily prescribed sanctions is
limited, conditional, and circumscribed by law;
Whereas the period of five days for the President to transmit to Congress the
``agreement with Iran relating to the nuclear program of Iran,'' as
defined in section 135 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as added by
section 2 of the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015, began to run
on July 14, 2015, and by July 19, 2015, the President had transmitted to
Congress only part of the ``agreement with Iran relating to the nuclear
program of Iran'' reached five days earlier;
Whereas the Administration publicly acknowledged on July 22, 2015, that at least
two side agreements existed that had not yet been provided to Congress,
specifically between the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and
Iran, but has steadfastly refused to provide those agreements;
Whereas such section 135 provides that the President ``shall'' transmit to
Congress any agreement with Iran, ``including all related materials and
annexes'', defined under such section to include ``side agreements''--
with no statutory exceptions for either secret or unavailable (to the
United States) side agreements--within five days of reaching such an
agreement; and
Whereas, as a result, the President has never fully transmitted to Congress the
``agreement with Iran relating to the nuclear program of Iran'' as
defined by such section 135, and specifically did not transmit the full
agreement within the timeline mandated by law: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
(1) the congressional review provision under section 135 of
the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 (42 U.S.C. 2160e), as added by
section 2 of the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015
(Public Law 114-17), does not apply to the Joint Comprehensive
Plan of Action announced on July 14, 2015, because the
President failed to comply with the transmission to Congress
provisions of such section 135;
(2) because the President did not transmit to Congress
``all related materials and annexes'' within five days of
reaching agreement with Iran, the statutory congressional
review provided for in such section 135 did not occur, at least
not in the manner envisioned by the members of Congress who
voted for Public Law 114-17;
(3) in light of the President's failure to submit the
entire ``agreement with Iran relating to the nuclear program of
Iran,'' including side agreements, to Congress within five
days, the congressional review provision of such section 135 by
its own terms was not applicable to the partial agreement that
the President submitted to Congress, known as the JCPOA, and
therefore in order for the substance of what was submitted to
Congress to become ``the supreme Law of the Land'' pursuant to
Article VI, clause 2 of the Constitution, it would need to be
either treated by the Senate as a treaty ``provided two thirds
of the Senators present concur'' pursuant to Article II,
section 2, clause 2 of the Constitution, or Congress would need
to enact new implementing legislation that supersedes the
mandatory statutory sanctions that the JCPOA purports to
supersede;
(4) the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and
Divestment Act of 2010 (CISADA), section 1245 of the National
Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 (Public Law 112-
81), the Iran Freedom and Counter-Proliferation Act of 2012
(IFCA), and the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights
Act of 2012 (TRA) remain ``the supreme Law of the Land'' unless
and until a Senate-ratified treaty or duly enacted statute
repeals or otherwise supersedes them and becomes ``the supreme
Law of the Land'' pursuant to Article VI, clause 2 of the
Constitution; and
(5) the Senate, which has the power to consent to treaties
under Article II, section 2, clause 2 of the Constitution, has
not and does not consent to the JCPOA, which is therefore not
``the supreme Law of the Land'', and the President therefore
has a constitutional duty to ensure that the Iran sanctions
laws, including CISADA, section 1245 of the National Defense
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 (Public Law 112-81),
IFCA, and TRA, continue to be faithfully executed.
<all>