[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 14090-14091]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS

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  SENATE RESOLUTION 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

  Mr. JOHNSON (for himself, Mr. Toomey, and Mr. Lee) submitted the 
following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign 
Relations:

                              S. Res. 251

       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

[[Page 14091]]

     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.

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