Bob Corker

Mr. CORKER

Mr. CORKER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the title amendment to H.R. 1191, which is at the desk, be considered and agreed to.

Mr. CORKER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that if cloture is invoked on the Corker substitute amendment No. 1140, that a point of order against all of the pending nongermane amendments be in order and be considered to have been made; that the Corker amendment No. 1179 be withdrawn; that the Senate consider and agree to the Corker-Cardin technical amendment No. 1219; that the Corker substitute amendment No. 1140, as amended, be adopted, the cloture motion on H.R. 1191 be withdrawn, and the bill, as amended, be read a third time and the Senate vote on passage of H.R. 1191, as amended, with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. CORKER. Mr. President, I just want to clarify a few aspects of this legislation and to make clear the collective understanding of the Senate in acting on this bill. First, we should be clear that the bill as it stands would prohibit, during the review period, any sanctions relief that goes beyond the JPOA or any materially identical extension, including but not limited to any increase in the amount of hard currency or other assets that Iran has access to under the JPOA. That is, during the review period, the amount of relief available under the JPOA could still be offered, if an extension was agreed to in the timeframe provided for in the bill, but no additional amounts could be provided. Second, the term ``statutory sanctions'' as used in the legislation means sanctions that Congress has imposed or specifically authorized with respect to Iran, including but not limited to all of the sanctions imposed with respect to Iran under the Iran Sanctions Act, the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act, and the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013. That is, the term statutory sanctions as used in the bill, means all of the sanctions contained in these statutes and other Iran-related sanctions that Congress has imposed. Finally, as discussed during the committee markup, we all agree that the period for review only begins when all the documents required to be submitted along with the agreement itself and all of the annexes and other materials that are covered by the definition of agreement in the bill have been submitted to Congress. That is, the period for review under our bill only begins to run when all of the documents that make up the agreement and have to be submitted with it are submitted to Congress, as provided in the bill.

Mr. CORKER. I agree with my colleague, the Senator from Alaska, that other committees should consider the relevant issues in their jurisdiction. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will, of course, consider any resolution of approval or disapproval, but the involvement of other committees in the hearing process will certainly assist the full Senate as it debates this issue.

Mr. CORKER. Mr. President, I thank the distinguished ranking member. I will be very brief. I thank our ranking member, who could not have been more of a gentleman, more of a leader on this issue, and I cannot thank him enough for his efforts and his staff's. I thank also Senator Menendez, who before was ranking member of the committee and is such a leader on this and has been from day one relative to the sanctions on Iran and bringing them to the table. I would also thank Senator Graham. We began this process in July of last year. And so many others have been involved. Senator Graham obviously helped drive this. So did Senator Kaine, on the Democratic side of the aisle. But we have had so many rocks, such as Jeff Flake and others who have just been steady in helping make this happen. Since there is only a short amount of time, I do want to encourage my colleagues here in the Senate to support this cloture motion. We have been on the floor now for 2 weeks, and I know there have been a lot of process issues that we have dealt with. At the end of the day, without this bill there is no review of what happens relative to Iran. So we worked hard to create a great bipartisan balance. I think we have an opportunity to do something that really is in some ways a landmark piece of legislation, in that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in a bipartisan way with a 19-to-0 vote has basically taken back the power that the President now has to work collaboratively to make sure that we have the opportunity to see the details, as my colleague has mentioned, of any deal that may be negotiated with Iran, that it stand before the Senate and give us time to actually go through those details, that we see all the classified annexes and everything that go with this. We have the opportunity, should we choose, to pass a resolution of approval or disapproval. And then, very importantly, the President has to certify every 90 days that Iran is in compliance. So let me just restate that, without this bill, there is no limitation on the President's use of waivers to suspend the sanctions Congress has put in place. There is no requirement that Congress receive full details of any agreement with Iran. There is no review period for Congress to examine and weigh in on an agreement. There is no requirement that the President certify Iran is complying. And there are really no expedited procedures for Congress to reimpose rapidly sanctions should Iran cheat. So, in summary, no bill, no review; no bill, no oversight. I think the American people want the Senate and the House of Representatives on their behalf to ensure that Iran is accountable, that this is a transparent process, and that they comply. With that, I concede that the Presiding Officer wants to move ahead. Again, I thank our ranking member for his distinguished service and all of my colleagues who have brought us to this moment. I yield the floor.

Mr. CORKER

Mr. CORKER. I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. CORKER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of and the Senate now proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 155.

Mr. CORKER

Mr. CORKER. I further ask unanimous consent that the Corker substitute to the resolution be agreed to; the resolution, as amended, be agreed to; the Corker substitute to the preamble be considered; the Lee amendment to the preamble be agreed to; the Corker substitute, as amended, be agreed to; the preamble, as amended, be agreed to; and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. CORKER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Foreign Relations Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 97 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. CORKER

Mr. CORKER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 9:30 a.m., Wednesday, May 6; that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day; that following leader remarks, the Senate be in a period of morning business for 1 hour, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each, and that the time be equally divided, with the majority controlling the first half and the Democrats controlling the second half; finally, that following morning business the Senate then resume consideration of H.R. 1191.

Mr. CORKER

Mr. CORKER. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it stand adjourned under the previous order.

Mr. CORKER

Mr. CORKER. I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. CORKER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 169.

Mr. CORKER

Mr. CORKER. Mr. President, I thank the ranking member and the ranking member's staff. I thank the minority leader's office for working with us on what was going to be a series of votes, tough votes. I have a sense that the context of this has just changed, and I regret that. I have been working with numbers of Senators on some really controversial votes that we were willing to make, as we already have. As a matter of fact, the only two votes we have had thus far were considered poison pill votes. My friend from Maryland was willing to have more poison pill votes--if you want to call them that--tough votes, but I sense the context of this may have just changed. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. CORKER. If I could, Mr. President, the Senator is right; he doesn't offer many amendments, nor do I. But the very first amendment we voted on was the amendment of the Senator from Wisconsin. We had a conversation yesterday which I thought led to us considering combining this request with the request from Senator Cruz, and I know we are working on that particular issue. But I understand, and we are trying to process these. I think he knows we are trying to process votes, and the very first one we processed was the one from the Senator from Wisconsin. I do appreciate his concerns. I think he knows I share his concerns about this agreement. I am trying to get done what is possible. Again, if I could wave a wand and cause the national security waivers that Senator Johnson, myself, Senator Cardin, and others voted for years ago when we put the sanctions in place--if I could wave a wand and those would go away, then we would be in a position where we would actually need to have an affirmative vote. But I do appreciate his concerns. I think he knows we are trying to work through amendments down here, and I appreciate his patience as we do so. I yield the floor.

Mr. CORKER. Sure.

Mr. CORKER. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Wisconsin for his great service on the Foreign Relations Committee. I think he knows there is another amendment offered by another Senator, the Senator from Texas, that I think is very similar to this, and we are working right now with the other side to try to bring that up.

Mr. CORKER. Mr. President, again, I thank the Senator from Wisconsin and appreciate his service and his support of this bill. I agree with him, and I wish it were different than it is. The fact is that we will have a right to vote whether to approve or disapprove the lifting in the normal way, but that will occur 4 or 5 years down the road. I think most of us want to weigh in now before the sanctions regime totally dissipates. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. CORKER. Madam President, I know the Senator from Arkansas knows I have no issue with taking tough votes, and I would take them all day long. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. CORKER

Mr. CORKER. Mr. President, I know the good Senator from South Dakota knows that we are working with the other side to get a number of amendments ready to vote on today, and we certainly appreciate his constructive effort in letting us know what he is doing. I object to making it pending because the other side--I am doing this on their behalf--wants to work through the tranche that we have right now. I hope he discusses his amendment and maybe we can make it pending later today.

Mr. CORKER. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from California for her kindness and my apologies for all the talking in the background.

Mr. CORKER. I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. CORKER. Mr. President, on behalf of Senator Barrasso, I call up amendment No. 1147.

Mr. CORKER. Mr. President, I wish to say, while the Senator from South Carolina is on the floor, that at the end of the day, this bill is the Graham vision. I mean, the fact is that this is Graham-Corker, Corker-Graham. It has evolved so that we could have the kind of support that we need to pass this into law. But I thank Senator Graham for his pushing to make sure we got to this point. There is no question. Look, you have been on this issue for months. You have pursued this. You have sold this publicly. You have worked with us as we have caused this to evolve to get the number of votes that we may get actually to cause this to become law. I don't know of anybody in our caucus or anybody in the Senate that has more of a foreign policy national security background--no one. I thank you for your efforts to ensure that we do everything we can to make sure we have a voice in this agreement that may happen on June 30 or a few days thereafter. We wouldn't be here without your continual pushing. I yield the floor for Senator Cardin.

Mr. CORKER

Mr. CORKER. Mr. President, I thank my friend from Maryland. I agree. We have reached out to numbers of people who have amendments and have asked them to come down to the floor and talk with us. I know a number of our folks are traveling around the country focused on other things at present. We have reached out to them to get back with us and talk about some of the language. I say to my friend from Maryland that I appreciate his openness to the numbers of amendments we are now looking at. I know at lunch today he will talk to his caucus a little bit about them and we will talk to ours. I look forward to a robust process. But, again, we have to have people who, if they want to call up an amendment--they need to come down, if they will, and talk with us and let us work through the process. I thank the Senator for his comments. I suggest the absence of a quorum.