IRAN SIDE AGREEMENTS VOID CORKER-CARDIN LAW: David Rivkin and Congressman Mike Pompeo (R-KS) have a spot-on piece in the Washington Post, explaining how the “side deals” between Iran and the IAEA mean that under the terms of the Corker-Cardin law, President Obama has never submitted any “agreement” for Congress to review:
The act defines “agreement,” with exceptional precision, to include not only the agreement between Iran and six Western powers but also “any additional materials related thereto, including . . . 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.” But the president has not given Congress a key side agreement between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). This document describes how key questions about the past military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear program will be resolved, as well as the precise operational parameters of the verification regime to which Tehran will be subject.
This omission has important legal consequences. At the heart of the act is a provision, negotiated between Congress and the White House, freezing the president’s ability to “waive, suspend, reduce, provide relief from, or otherwise limit the application of statutory sanctions with respect to Iran” while Congress is reviewing the agreement.
That review period was supposed to take 60 days and is triggered the day the president submits the agreement to Congress. However, because the president failed to submit the agreement in full, as the law requires, the 60-day clock has not started, and the president remains unable lawfully to waive or lift statutory Iran-related sanctions. Indeed, since the act also provides for the transmittal of the agreement to Congress between July 10 and Sept. 7, the president’s ability to waive statutory sanctions will remain frozen in perpetuity if Congress does not receive the full agreement Monday.
Since the time period specified in Corker-Cardin for transmittal of the agreement (and all side deals) has now expired, Congress is no longer bound by the law, and President Obama has accordingly not been authorized to suspend, waive, reduce, or otherwise limit existing statutory sanctions against Iran.
If the President ignores this legal reality and waives Iranian sanctions anyway (he is rather fond of ignoring laws and taking unilateral executive action), Congress or the States should sue to stop him.
RELATED: Trump storms D.C. to oppose Iran deal. A rally is slated for tomorrow (Wednesday) at the Capitol with Senator Ted Cruz, former Gov. Sarah Palin, and talk show hosts Glenn Beck and Mark Levin.
UPDATE: Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL) has introduced a resolution that says that President Obama has not submitted the “agreement” (which was defined to explicitly include side deals) as required by law. He will seek to present the resolution as a “privileged” matter, which would allow an immediate floor vote, bypassing committee consideration. Speaker Boehner would need to recognize the resolution as privileged, however, and there are indicators that he is not willing to do this (surprise, surprise).