[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 6301-6303]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 ENSURING TAX EXEMPT ORGANIZATIONS THE RIGHT TO APPEAL ACT--MOTION TO 
                           PROCEED--Continued

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
  Mr. CORNYN. Thank you, Mr. President.


                   Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act

  Before my colleagues leave the floor, let me just offer my 
congratulations to the Senator from Tennessee and the Senator from 
Maryland, who have shepherded this important piece of legislation, the 
Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, across the Senate floor.
  I think we are all reminded every time we take up some consensus 
legislation and find all the traps and obstacles to passage that this 
is not an easy process. But it was not designed to be

[[Page 6302]]

easy. It was designed to force consensus before a bill actually is 
passed into law. Thanks to the patience and the tenacity of our 
colleague from Tennessee and our colleague from Maryland, we have done 
that today, and I thank them very much for that.
  This legislation guarantees that Congress will have the opportunity 
and the time to scrutinize any agreement reached between the 
administration and the P5+1 nations with regard to Iran's nuclear 
program. This is to my mind the single greatest threat--not only to 
regional peace but to world peace--and that is the prospect of an 
Iranian nuclear program, a nuclear weapon.
  This bill prohibits the President from lifting sanctions that 
Congress has worked on for so long during this period of time. That is 
another important feature. But the most important part of this is the 
fact that Congress will have the right to vote for or against any 
change in the status quo when it comes to Iran. This bill will serve as 
a congressional check if there is a bad deal with Iran, and it will 
allow the American people through their elected representatives to 
consider carefully whether this potential agreement is a good one.
  I have been amazed to read in the newspaper and to see on TV that the 
President has negotiated a deal. When one asks to read the deal, you 
find out there is no deal. There is a so-called framework. But if a 
deal is reached between our negotiating team negotiating with Iran and 
the P5+1 countries, then Congress will have an opportunity--and through 
us the American people will have the opportunity--to read it and to 
understand it. We will have the opportunity then to debate it, and as I 
said, we will have the opportunity then to vote up or down on this deal 
once a deal is struck, if a deal is struck.
  But I wonder sometimes about the naivete of the administration when 
it comes to negotiating with the world's foremost State sponsor of 
international terror. This is a regime that has been killing 
Americans--mainly by proxy--since the early 1980s. Of course we should 
not and we cannot trust Iran to do the right thing. It makes it even 
more necessary for Congress to put all aspects of any deal under a 
microscope, as we will.
  While the President has been negotiating this vague and convoluted 
framework, the Iranian regime has done nothing to earn the trust of the 
American people or our allies. Just the opposite is true. Iran has only 
proven that it is untrustworthy and that it will stop at nothing to 
further its influence throughout the Middle East at the expense of the 
United States and our allies.
  You don't have to look any further than the New York Times to find a 
relevant example of Iran's doublespeak--speaking out of both sides of 
its mouth. Just last month in a New York Times op-ed, Iran's Foreign 
Minister argued that the United States and the P5+1 countries should 
reach a final agreement in order to promote the stability and security 
of the region.
  The Foreign Minister, Mohammad Zarif, wrote of the need for ``a 
regional dialogue'' to ``promote understanding . . . on a broad 
spectrum of issues,'' among them, ``ensuring freedom of navigation and 
the free flow of oil and other resources. . . .''
  Well, this very article proves that to think we can negotiate with 
Iran in good faith is pure fiction. Just this past week, it was 
reported that U.S. Navy warships have had to accompany British and 
American commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, an 
international shipping lane that links the Indian Ocean and the Persian 
Gulf, after the Iranian navy seized a commercial vessel last week.
  Reports of another naval scuffle between the United States and Iran 
was reported yesterday just off the coast of Yemen. Is this how Iran 
has been working to ensure freedom of navigation in this region?
  Well, of course this is just one example of Iran's most recent 
deceptive tactics. This is the kind of regime that has been, as I said, 
on our State Department's list as the lead State for sponsorship of 
terrorism since 1984.
  Now the Obama administration seeks to cut a deal with the regime, a 
country that publicly admits wanting to destroy Israel and to build its 
empire and influence in places such as war-torn Syria and Iraq. The 
Obama administration's framework does nothing to hold Iran accountable 
for its proxy wars or for this type of regional adventurism. Even more 
concerning, this ambiguous understanding that the President released 
last month would abandon longstanding U.S. policy of preventing a 
nuclear-armed Iran and replace it with a feeble plan to contain it.
  I remember, as the Presiding Officer no doubt remembers, Prime 
Minister Netanyahu was just here a few weeks ago. He said that rather 
than prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, this framework would 
pave the path toward a nuclear Iran. The deal also forces the American 
people to trust the Iranian leadership with threshold nuclear 
capabilities, without allowing for adequate inspections of all of 
Iran's nuclear sites by international agencies, both civilian and 
military. This is unacceptable and dangerous. It also underscores why 
this legislation that we just passed is so important.
  This legislation is vitally important because it is a congressional 
backstop against an Iranian regime that is well known for its lies and 
international deception. Guaranteeing the time and the opportunity for 
Congress to scrutinize this misguided deal is essential. Providing the 
American people with the kind of transparency they deserve to 
understand what has been negotiated on their behalf is absolutely 
critical.
  America's elected representatives must be able to get every and any 
detail on this emerging deal. That is one reason why I think this 
legislation is so important. We need the time and space to review it. 
This bill provides for that. It gives us an opportunity to understand 
its terms and debate its implications.
  I am encouraged by the vote we just had, a near unanimous vote on 
this legislation. This is important because this President has shown a 
predisposition to try to go it alone, not only in foreign affairs and 
national security matters but on immigration, health care, and the 
like.
  It is past time for Congress to stand up and tell the President that 
he cannot act alone. Our Constitution contemplates three coequal 
branches of government, and Congress on behalf of the American people 
cannot be frozen out of the debate and the decisionmaking when it comes 
to something as important as an Iranian nuclear negotiation.
  I see another Senator ready to speak.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Carolina.


     National Day of Prayer and Solving Problems in Our Communities

  Mr. SCOTT. Mr. President, today is the National Day of Prayer. It is 
a day where we as a nation have an opportunity simply to get on our 
knees and ask God for Divine intervention and ask the Lord for help.
  Our Nation is, indeed, an amazing nation, a great nation, a nation 
with a destiny. I think it is important for us to take the time to 
remind ourselves, as part of the foundation of this very Nation, that 
there is a foundation of faith.
  As I think about that foundation of faith and the need for prayer, it 
is hard not to remember that the last year has proven to be a difficult 
time for low-income communities and minority communities throughout 
this country. It is time for us to have a national conversation about 
solving some of the problems that we see arising in communities around 
the Nation. Whether those communities are in Ferguson or Baltimore, 
Ohio or Oklahoma or in my hometown of North Charleston, SC, finding 
solutions is critical.
  I believe that a part of the puzzle includes body cameras to be worn 
by our officers. Body cameras are simply not a fantasy but a part of a 
larger puzzle to provide solutions to communities that are distressed. 
I know firsthand that the solutions in my Opportunity Agenda work.
  As a kid growing up in a single parent household, I drifted in the 
wrong

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direction. I struggled in school. I had a difficult time. I was a 
hopeless kid in a challenging situation. I will state that as I look 
around the Nation, many of the challenges we see today are kids just 
like me, growing up in places like where I grew up, looking for hope, 
looking for leadership.
  I believe that embedded in my Opportunity Agenda we have some of the 
solutions that can help heal and restore as well as direct and instruct 
these communities into places of hope and opportunity. I believe that 
too often we see impoverished communities and distressed communities as 
high-risk communities. I prefer to see them as high-potential 
communities, communities where greatness breeds and lives. We just need 
to find an avenue to harness the potential and move forward.
  I am hopeful that as we focus on the issues that are embedded in the 
Opportunity Agenda--issues such as education, and I mean a quality 
education in every ZIP Code in America and that we should have high-
performing schools in those ZIP Codes. That includes school choice, 
whether it is charter or virtual or home schools or public schools. We 
need to have a serious and robust conversation about school choice.
  Work skills are so important. In so many of these communities the 
unemployment rate is over 30 percent--a 30-percent unemployment rate. 
We can challenge those statistics by looking at the work skills and 
also by looking at apprenticeship programs, where you can earn and 
learn at the exact same time. We are breathing new hope into these 
communities. I also think that when we think about the future, we must 
think about the chance to save the future of so many of these young 
kids who may be losing hope in our country, who may be losing hope in 
their communities, and perhaps losing hope in themselves.
  We have a chance to make a difference in this next generation.
  I thank Senator Grassley, our chairman of the Judiciary Committee, 
along with Senator Graham, our subcommittee chair, for agreeing to hold 
a hearing on the use of body cameras in the next few weeks. I believe 
the hearing on body cameras will produce important information on how 
we can deal with some of the challenges in some of our distressed 
communities.
  I believe we can find ways to restore hope and create opportunities 
for every single child in America.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cassidy). The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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