[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 14219-14220]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      NUCLEAR AGREEMENT WITH IRAN

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, on the floor we are going to return in a 
few minutes to the debate on the Iran agreement. This agreement, of 
course, has been in the works for a long time. President Obama set out 
to create a set of sanctions, punishment against Iran to force them to 
come to the table and to negotiate with us and other nations so they 
would not develop a nuclear weapon. The President invested a lot of 
capital in it, and it worked. Congress imposed sanctions. The President 
imposed sanctions.
  The day came when the negotiations started, and we weren't sitting 
alone at the table. It is an amazing alliance of nations trying to stop 
Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. It included China, Russia, the 
United Kingdom, Germany, France, and the European Union. They all 
joined us in the sanctions, and many others too. But they joined us at 
the negotiating table, and they worked with us until we reached an 
agreement. That agreement didn't rely on trusting the Iranians. No. It 
relied on inspectors, real inspectors from the United Nations who have 
a sterling reputation. It was those inspectors who warned us before we 
invaded Iraq that there were no weapons of mass destruction. The Bush-
Cheney administration paid no attention. We paid a heavy price for that 
dereliction of duty.
  Now these inspectors are in place--will be when this agreement moves 
forward. We can not only find out what is going on in Iran when it 
comes to nuclear weapons, we can make sure we discourage them from ever 
violating this treaty or agreement. Should they violate it, 
automatically the sanctions will snap back. In fact, it takes only the 
vote of the United States in the Security Council of the United Nations 
for all of the sanctions to come back on Iran if they break the treaty. 
Inspectors, snapback on sanctions, and I hope it results in what we 
want to see: No.

[[Page 14220]]

1, stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, and No. 2, avoid the 
United States from going to war again in the Middle East. Those are our 
two goals.
  Those who oppose this agreement come to the floor and say: Stop it. 
Don't do it. Walk away from it. It is nothing but bad.
  Every single Republican in the House and Senate--every single one of 
them--has come out against this agreement. Not one is supporting it. It 
shouldn't surprise us.
  On March 9, 2015, 47 Republican Senators sent a letter to the 
Ayatollah Khamenei. Do you know what they said? Don't negotiate with 
the United States of America. Don't negotiate with this President or 
other nations. Whatever you do is going to be subject to congressional 
review. There is no guarantee we will support it. Even if it is 
supported by Congress, there is no guarantee that any future President 
would enforce this agreement.
  You may even hear it tonight in the Republican Presidential candidate 
debate. Isn't it interesting that this was the first time in the 
history of the United States, the very first time that a group of 
Senators intervened in a Presidential negotiation in national 
security--the first time that has ever happened. And 47 Republican 
Senators, including every Member of the leadership, signed that letter. 
What would happen if 47 Democrats had sent a letter to Saddam Hussein 
prior to the invasion of Iraq saying: Don't pay any attention to 
President Bush. What do you think the reaction of Vice President Cheney 
would have been? He would have had us all up on charges--treason. That 
is exactly what happened here. There was a letter from 47 Republican 
Senators saying: Don't negotiate with the United States. The President 
ignored it. The negotiations continued.
  The agreement is before us. There was a key vote last week, a 
critical vote. Every single Member of the Senate has publicly declared 
where they stand on this agreement. After some 8 weeks of deliberation 
and debate, the vote took place last week, but it wasn't enough for 
Senator McConnell. He demanded that we replay the vote last night. We 
did, with the same result.
  I don't know how many times he is going to bring this before us, but 
may I suggest to the Republican leader there are some items that he 
might consider moving to. We are 8 legislative days away from shutting 
down the Government of the United States. Should we be discussing that? 
Most Americans would say so. Most Americans think it is embarrassing 
that the U.S. Government would shut down because a willful group--a 
small minority--is determined to get that done. Too many people suffer 
when that happens. We have to do everything we can to keep this 
government open.
  Let's get beyond this debate. We have already established what the 
vote is, and the Republicans didn't come up with the 60 votes necessary 
to move forward. That is the story. They don't like the ending, but 
that is the ending. Let's move forward in a responsible way to do two 
things--first, to make sure that Iran lives up to this agreement and do 
everything in our power to enforce it, and second, get on with the 
business of government. Let's fund this government. Let's not become a 
nation that people look at and say: Who is in charge here if a 
Republican Congress would shut down a government for a second time, as 
they did a couple of years ago? Who is in charge? Let's get into that 
issue and let's do it in a responsible and a bipartisan way.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri.

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