OVERNIGHT DEFENSE: Both sides claim victory over Iran bill

by Kristina Wong and Martin Matishak - 04/15/15 7:08 PM ET

Republicans and the White House both sought to claim victory one day after legislation that would allow Congress to weigh in on a final nuclear deal with Iran advanced in the Senate.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Ranking Member Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) negotiated changes to the bill, and the White House dropped weeks of opposition, signaling that President Obama could sign the measure.

Corker jabbed at the White House, saying they backed down after realizing the strong support for the bill. The bill passed out of his committee 19-0 earlier in the day.

{mosads}”They realized what was getting ready to happen. This was a runaway train. We had significant support. And so they released their veto threat once they saw that we were beyond the number of people it would take to override a veto,” he said Tuesday evening on Fox News.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) echoed that idea Wednesday on Fox News, saying the White House only reversed positions after it dispatched top officials to brief Congress on a framework agreement that international negotiators reached on April 2 and lawmakers “recoiled.”

“Sen. Corker is right. We were going to have an overwhelming vote in the Senate on the legislation that Barack Obama had threatened to veto for weeks… The White House had to withdraw its veto threat,” he said on Fox News’s “America’s Newsroom.”

All nine Democrats on the committee voted for the bill, but stressed that they had obtained critical changes.

Some of the changes include allowing Congress 52 days to review the deal instead of 60, and eliminating a requirement that the administration certify that Iran was not a sponsor of terrorism against Americans.

The White House, which had opposed the bill for months, announced on Tuesday that the president would sign the bill if those two issues were addressed.

On Wednesday, White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett said the bill’s passage through the committee was not a defeat for the administration, and praised Corker.

“He and Sen. Cardin did a terrific job of working together and listening and in the end compromising,” Jarrett said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “So it’s not ideal, obviously, but we want to move forward.”

She also pushed back against suggestions that Secretary of State John Kerry had tried to get senators to hold off when he briefed them Tuesday before the vote.

IRAN WEIGHS IN: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday said he is not concerned about Congress joining the debate over a tentative agreement on his nation’s nuclear program.

Rouhani said he saw congressional input on the deal as an internal issue between President Obama and U.S. lawmakers, according to Reuters, and believes it will not have an impact on the final accord.

“What the U.S. Senate, Congress and others say is not our problem,” Rouhani said during a Wednesday address in the Iranian city of Rasht.

“We are in talks with the major powers and not with the Congress,” he added.

SENATORS SEEK DETAILS ON EX-DETAINEES: A group of GOP senators is pressing the nation’s top spy for more details about three former Guantanamo Bay detainees who may have returned to the battlefield.

The trio — who include Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), who sit on the Armed Services Committee — sent a letter to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper on April 14 asking him to elaborate on the findings of a bi-annual report that predicted a number of detainees held at the controversial prison would return to terrorism.

The study said that while there are some ways to deter and delay such actions, some detainees “who are determined to reengage will do so regardless of any transfer conditions.”

The lawmakers requested that Clapper provide them the identities of the former detainees, the court cases that led to their release, whether they were approved for release or transfer under other detainee review procedures and whether anyone, including U.S. service members, were killed or injured by the detainees.

President Obama has stepped up his efforts to shutter the controversial facility to fulfill a campaign pledge he made in 2008.

Tuesday’s letter is the latest indication Republicans are not about to let the president move forward on his plan without a fight.

The GOP-controlled Congress in the weeks ahead could include restrictions against closing the facility when it marks up the defense policy and spending bills for fiscal year 2016.

“No American service member should ever have to confront a former Guantanamo detainee on the battlefield,” Ayotte said. “The American people have a right to know about the terrorist activities of detainees who have been released from Guantanamo, as well as the terrorist associations and activities of detainees still there.”

WAR POWERS MEASURE ALIVE IN SENATE? Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said lawmakers could still approve a resolution authorizing the use of military force (AUMF) against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

He told reporters Wednesday that he disagreed with recent remarks by House Republican leaders that President Obama’s request was essentially dead on Capitol Hill.

“Oh, no. Not at all,” he added.

“I’ve always assumed if it was going to happen, it was going to happen in the Senate and then go to the House,” said Kaine, who has been critical of his colleagues for months for not voting on an ISIS war measure.

Kaine also proposed authorization language of his own.

He said the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has “definitely been working” on a war powers resolution while also advancing legislation that gives Congress a say on a nuclear deal with Iran.

“We’re trading ideas to try to find a formulation of the mission close to what the president proposed that would engender bipartisan support. We think that that’s really important,” Kaine said.

But Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a possible 2016 presidential contender, said he hasn’t changed his mind on not supporting Obama’s draft resolution, arguing it’s “too restrictive” when it comes to ground troops.

”It’s just a mess, the way it’s written,” he said.

PANEL APPROVES $77B FOR MILITARY CONSTRUCTION: A House Appropriations subpanel on Wednesday backed a roughly $77 billion spending bill to fund military construction, maintenance efforts and veterans’ benefits.

The markup on the $76.6 billion measure came one day after the committee unveiled the legislation, which is $1.2 billion below President Obama’s budget request.

“This is a solid, bipartisan bill that’s focused on the needs of our service members, veterans and all their families. We’re $4.6 billion over the 2015 level, which is nearly 6 percent,” Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) said.

For military construction projects, the bill provides $7.7 billion, which is $904 million above the 2015 level and $755 million below Obama’s budget request

Republicans matched Obama’s request to provide $1.4 billion to fund the construction of military family housing, which is $223 million above the 2015 level.

Lawmakers also met Obama’s appeal to provide $63.3 billion in advance appropriations for fiscal 2017 funding for veterans’ medical programs.

GOP leaders scheduled floor votes on the bill before the House adjourns for its next recess in May.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

— Republican presses for delay in resettlement of Syrian refugees

— Israeli embassy trolls White House

— Hawkish Rubio: ‘We’re fools’ to ignore Russia

— US to Iran: Stop sending weapons to Yemen

— Senate observes moment of silence for Boston bombing anniversary

Please send tips and comments to Kristina Wong, kwong@digital-staging.thehill.com, and Martin Matishak, mmatishak@digital-staging.thehill.com.