Senate

Corker: ‘Very unlikely’ GOP can stop Iran deal

by Jordain Carney - 08/26/15 4:35 PM ET

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said Wednesday that it’s unlikely Congress will be able to block President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, given growing support from Senate Democrats.

“I can read the tea leaves, and understand that at this moment it looks very unlikely that we’ll have a veto-proof majority to disapprove, but I know we’re going to have a bipartisan majority that will disapprove,” Corker told The Tennessean editorial board.

{mosads}So far, 29 senators have said publicly they plan to back the deal, putting Obama within striking distance of the 34 Senate votes he needs to uphold a veto of any resolution to kill the deal.

With 15 Senate Democrats still undecided, according to The Hill’s Whip List, opponents of the agreement would need to convince 11 of them to buck Obama in order to have the 67 votes required to override a veto.

Corker said he’s been on the phone with some centrist Democrats, who he said are raising concerns about a lack of a policy from the administration on the Middle East.

Sens. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) are the only Senate Democrats who have said they will vote against the deal.

Corker, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, added that his goal on the Iran deal is to have a “sober, substantive debate and vote, and I think we’ll achieve that.”

Congress has until Sept. 17 to pass a resolution on the Iran deal and until early October to try to override any veto.

Separately, Corker suggested during a local chamber of commerce event that he wouldn’t be actively pushing undecided lawmakers to oppose the agreement.

“My role is not so much to lobby but be a sounding board for people,” he said, according to The Tennessean. “That’s a more effective place for me to be.”

During the editorial board meeting, Corker said that after Congress votes on the Iran deal he expects lawmakers to try to “pass some piece of legislation … that begins to articulate and push forth a foreign policy initiative in the Middle East, and I think many Democrats that, you know, end up voting for this are going to be wanting to latch themselves on to something.”

Corker has also predicted that lawmakers will vote on an extension of an Iran sanctions law, currently set to expire next year, and that they would likely pass the extension by the end of the year.

Tags Bob Corker Bob Menendez Chuck Schumer