Week ahead: Iran deal keeps Kerry in the hot seat

Congress gets another chance to grill the administration on the Iran nuclear deal when senior officials testify before a House panel on Tuesday.

Secretary of State John Kerry, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew will testify in front of the House Foreign Affairs Committee about the deal, which Republicans are all but certain to unite against.

The administration is hoping to retain Democratic support for the agreement, which lawmakers may vote to support or reject within the next two months.

{mosads}The White House has threatened a veto on a resolution of disapproval, and critics of the deal would need two-thirds majorities in both chambers to override one. Republicans only need 13 Democratic votes to rebuff the president’s veto and many Senate Democrats say they are still on the fence.

Kerry, Moniz and Lew testified in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday but did not appear to change any minds.

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), former ranking member of the committee, said he will move to reauthorize sanctions legislation against Iran, so that if Tehran violates the agreement, those sanctions could be put in place.

Tuesday’s hearing will likely focus on classified “side deals” the International Atomic Energy Agency negotiated with Iran.

News of the side deals angered members of Congress, who have demanded they be submitted to lawmakers for review.

The committee’s ranking member, Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), has called parts of the nuclear agreement “deeply troubling” and said he has “serious questions and concerns about this deal.”

Also on Capitol Hill, House and Senate lawmakers on the Armed Services committees will press ahead in talks to draft a compromise bill on authorizing Pentagon funding and operations.

They hoped to send a joint bill to Congress next week, before lawmakers’ August recess, but are still working through some disagreements.

The president has vowed to veto the bill. A September veto on the bill would give Congress only a few months to restart the process.

Defense experts are divided on whether the president will follow through on his veto threat.

Also, the House Armed Services Committee will host a hearing Wednesday on the potential regional implications of the Iran deal, with experts from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Witnesses will include Michael Eisenstadt, Kahn fellow and director of the military and securities studies program; and Michael Singh, Lane-Swig senior fellow and managing director.

Eisenstadt signed an open statement that included five former Obama officials laying out acceptable parameters for a nuclear deal.

The Select Committee on Benghazi will host a hearing Wednesday on “Repeated State Department Compliance Failures” with top Kerry aide Jon Finer.

The hearing will focus on the State Department’s “slow state of document production” related to information requested by the panel.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee on Tuesday will look into how the Pentagon sent out live samples of anthrax over the past two years.

Witnesses will include officials from the Pentagon, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Health and Human Services’s Office of Inspector General, and the Government Accountability Office. 

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