More WH Attempts To Bypass Congress: An Iran Deal, GITMO And More
For the second time in as many weeks, the Obama administration is floating the possibility of another end-run around Congress on a major policy, this time on Iran sanctions.
According to The New York Times, “No one knows if the Obama administration will manage in the next five weeks to strike what many in the White House consider the most important foreign policy deal of his presidency: an accord with Iran that would forestall its ability to make a nuclear weapon. But the White House has made one significant decision: If agreement is reached, President Obama will do everything in his power to avoid letting Congress vote on it. . . .
“[T]he Iranians have signaled that they would accept, at least temporarily, a “suspension” of the stringent sanctions that have drastically cut their oil revenues and terminated their banking relationships with the West, according to American and Iranian officials. The Treasury Department, in a detailed study it declined to make public, has concluded Mr. Obama has the authority to suspend the vast majority of those sanctions without seeking a vote by Congress, officials say.
“But Mr. Obama cannot permanently terminate those sanctions. Only Congress can take that step. And even if Democrats held on to the Senate next month, Mr. Obama’s advisers have concluded they would probably lose such a vote. ‘We wouldn’t seek congressional legislation in any comprehensive agreement for years,’ one senior official said. . . .
“[M]any members of Congress see the plan as an effort by the administration to freeze them out, a view shared by some Israeli officials who see a congressional vote as the best way to constrain the kind of deal that Mr. Obama might strike.”
Even Democrats sound troubled by this idea.
The Times writes, “The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Robert Menendez, the New Jersey Democrat, said over the weekend that, ‘If a potential deal does not substantially and effectively dismantle Iran’s illicit nuclear weapons program, I expect Congress will respond. An agreement cannot allow Iran to be a threshold nuclear state.’ He has sponsored legislation to tighten sanctions if no agreement is reached by Nov. 24. A leading Republican critic of the negotiations, Senator Mark S. Kirk of Illinois, added, ‘Congress will not permit the president to unilaterally unravel Iran sanctions that passed the Senate in a 99 to 0 vote,’ a reference to the vote in 2010 that imposed what have become the toughest set of sanctions.”
All this follows a report in The Wall Street Journal ten days ago that “[t]he White House is drafting options that would allow President Barack Obama to close the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by overriding a congressional ban on bringing detainees to the U.S., senior administration officials said. Such a move would be the latest and potentially most dramatic use of executive power by the president in his second term. It would likely provoke a sharp reaction from lawmakers, who have repeatedly barred the transfer of detainees to the U.S.”
At the time, the WSJ noted, “The White House has sought to make executive actions a centerpiece of its policy agenda, in areas including the minimum wage, antidiscrimination rules and, potentially, immigration.”
Tags: Preseident Obama, Obama administration, bypass congress, Iran deal, GITMO, executive actions, minimum wage, rules, amnesty, illegal immigration To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
According to The New York Times, “No one knows if the Obama administration will manage in the next five weeks to strike what many in the White House consider the most important foreign policy deal of his presidency: an accord with Iran that would forestall its ability to make a nuclear weapon. But the White House has made one significant decision: If agreement is reached, President Obama will do everything in his power to avoid letting Congress vote on it. . . .
“[T]he Iranians have signaled that they would accept, at least temporarily, a “suspension” of the stringent sanctions that have drastically cut their oil revenues and terminated their banking relationships with the West, according to American and Iranian officials. The Treasury Department, in a detailed study it declined to make public, has concluded Mr. Obama has the authority to suspend the vast majority of those sanctions without seeking a vote by Congress, officials say.
“But Mr. Obama cannot permanently terminate those sanctions. Only Congress can take that step. And even if Democrats held on to the Senate next month, Mr. Obama’s advisers have concluded they would probably lose such a vote. ‘We wouldn’t seek congressional legislation in any comprehensive agreement for years,’ one senior official said. . . .
“[M]any members of Congress see the plan as an effort by the administration to freeze them out, a view shared by some Israeli officials who see a congressional vote as the best way to constrain the kind of deal that Mr. Obama might strike.”
Even Democrats sound troubled by this idea.
The Times writes, “The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Robert Menendez, the New Jersey Democrat, said over the weekend that, ‘If a potential deal does not substantially and effectively dismantle Iran’s illicit nuclear weapons program, I expect Congress will respond. An agreement cannot allow Iran to be a threshold nuclear state.’ He has sponsored legislation to tighten sanctions if no agreement is reached by Nov. 24. A leading Republican critic of the negotiations, Senator Mark S. Kirk of Illinois, added, ‘Congress will not permit the president to unilaterally unravel Iran sanctions that passed the Senate in a 99 to 0 vote,’ a reference to the vote in 2010 that imposed what have become the toughest set of sanctions.”
All this follows a report in The Wall Street Journal ten days ago that “[t]he White House is drafting options that would allow President Barack Obama to close the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by overriding a congressional ban on bringing detainees to the U.S., senior administration officials said. Such a move would be the latest and potentially most dramatic use of executive power by the president in his second term. It would likely provoke a sharp reaction from lawmakers, who have repeatedly barred the transfer of detainees to the U.S.”
At the time, the WSJ noted, “The White House has sought to make executive actions a centerpiece of its policy agenda, in areas including the minimum wage, antidiscrimination rules and, potentially, immigration.”
Tags: Preseident Obama, Obama administration, bypass congress, Iran deal, GITMO, executive actions, minimum wage, rules, amnesty, illegal immigration To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
2 Comments:
Don't understand why we let this continue?
Only if "We the People" let them. So far it seems to be working for Owebama. Congress is in bed with him along with the supreme court.
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