How Congress Can Still Kill Obama's Iran Nuclear Deal

Congress should seize the opportunity provided by the Obama administration's missteps on the Iran nuclear deal to defeat the deal using its constitutional authority, rather than relying on an agreed-upon process that President Barack Obama effectively mooted by seeking United Nations approval first and which his administration seems to have already violated.

Back on May 7, the Senate voted 98-1 to pass a framework under which to consider the then-forthcoming Iran deal. It had been negotiated with Sens. Bob Corker of Tennessee and Ben Cardin of Maryland, the chairman and top Democrat, respectively, on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The Corker-Cardin agreement -- which is of dubious constitutionality -- set up an arbitrary process that leaned heavily toward the president, giving Congress 60 days to review the Iran deal, and requiring an affirmative vote to defeat it, which Obama could veto.

[MORE: Political Cartoons on Iran]

As a result, assuming Obama would indeed veto such a measure as he insists he would, the threshold Iran deal opponents must reach to defeat it under Corker-Cardin is a two-thirds majority in both the House and the Senate, the proportion necessary to override a veto.

Until this week, Democrats and even many Republicans might have been loath to set aside the Corker-Cardin process, considering the overwhelming margin by which it was passed. Those who voted for the bill ultimately even included Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz, a leading voice against the deal, who said at the time that the legislation "may delay, slightly, President Obama's ability to lift the Iran sanctions and it ensures we will have a Congressional debate on the merits of the Iran deal."

Except that now it won't.

[See: Editorial Cartoons on Barack Obama ]

That's because Monday morning, the U.N. Security Council approved the Iran deal, without waiting for the U.S. Congress to consider it. This in spite of Corker and Cardin imploring the president to wait for their process to take place. In a letter to the president last week, they quoted Obama's own words back to him, arguing that the U.N. reviewing the agreement before the Congress "would be contrary to your statement that 'it's important for the American people and Congress to get a full opportunity to review this deal ... our national security policies are stronger and more effective when they are subject to the scrutiny and transparency that democracy demands.'"

But he didn't wait.

Regardless, the death knell of the Corker-Cardin process may have been sounded Tuesday night, when Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo and Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, both Republicans, revealed that the Iran deal includes secret side-agreements the Obama administration appears to have deliberately withheld from Congress. That move is a prima facie violation of Corker-Cardin, which mandates that the administration provide everything to Congress, namely the "annexes, appendices, codicils, 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."

Apparently the administration didn't.

[SEE: Editorial Cartoons on Congress]

So now is the time to act for the Iran deal's growing number of opponents. Here's how Congress can reassert itself and kill this deal, in five easy steps:

First House and Senate Members should immediately introduce a concurrent resolution deeming that for Congress' internal purposes, the Iran deal is a treaty. A concurrent resolution lacks the force of law, but who cares? So does the president deeming his deal as not a treaty. Such resolutions, as the Senate's website notes, are "used to express the sentiments of both of the houses." The Budget Resolution is an example of how they are used -- they determine the parameters of how an issue will be considered within the context of Congress.

Granted, to do so, the Senate must reach 60 votes, to overcome an expected filibuster by the president's supporters. But such a move would have to be bipartisan anyway. So the resolution should be put on the table in the House first and, second, House Democrats who have expressed serious concerns about the Iran deal should be brought into a room to discuss it. There's at least a baker's dozen of Democratic lawmakers who have raised these concerns and insisted that Congress have a voice in this process: Steny Hoyer of Maryland, Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, Eliot Engel, Nita Lowey, Grace Meng and Steve Israel of New York, Brad Sherman and Adam Schiff of California, Dan Lipinski of Illinois, Ann Kirkpatrick of Arizona, Albio Sires of New Jersey, and Ted Deutch and Alan Grayson of Florida.

[READ: A Deal Based on Trust, Not Verification]

This group is most likely to be willing to stand up to the president's end run. And they would help eliminate cover for the rest of the caucus: Were they to support the concurrent resolution, no pro-Israel member, no moderate Democrat and no Hoyer loyalist would be safe opposing it.

As the House is in talks, the Senate should, third, bring a group together, too. Republicans could convene it, and invite such middle-ground GOPers as Sens. Rob Portman of Ohio, Susan Collins of Maine, Jeff Flake of Arizona and of course Corker himself. But the invitation list should also include Democrats like Ben Cardin of Maryland, Charles Schumer of New York, Bob Menendez and Cory Booker of New Jersey, Gary Peters of Michigan, Ron Wyden of Oregon, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Jon Tester of Montana, Tom Udall of New Mexico, Chris Coons of Delaware and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut.

Again, these are Democrats who have expressed the most concern about the Iran deal. A meeting with them could tease out the subgroup of six that could agree on language and seal the deal. In the context of a bipartisan House vote, getting to six in this list should be achievable.

Fourth, once they have reached agreement with the support of all 54 Republicans and at least six Democrats, the Senate could bring up the concurrent resolution, end debate and pass it.

[READ: What Now for Israel]

This would mean that, fifth, in Congress' eyes at least, the Iran deal is a treaty meaning that it requires a two-thirds majority to ratify it. That means the final step is to bring up the deal in the Senate and defeat it, requiring only 34 votes to do so.

It is likely that the president would refuse to accept the result of Congress' action, since the concurrent resolution would not have the force of law. The Security Council has already acted, after all. He may simply go about his business, doing everything under the law he can to ease sanctions on Iran -- and potentially more than that.

Likewise, China and Russia are likely to move forward with sanctions relief, since they are likely to begin arms shipments and other trade to the rogue Iranian state as quickly as possible.

[READ: If North Korea Got the Bomb, Iran Will Too]

But the Obama administration has already made clear that even if Congress defeats the deal, it expects the sanctions regime to collapse anyway, since the deal does not provide for approval by appropriate legislative bodies within the signatories -- except, of course, in Iran and the United Nations, which astonishingly enough the deal explicitly provides for without mentioning the U.S. Congress.

What's more, the resolution requires 90 days before going into effect. By the time it does, it could be a dead letter -- at least with respect to the United States. That is, the Congress will already have denied U.S. sanctions relief required under the deal. Will Iran's legislature-like body, controlled by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, approve the deal under those circumstances? Will the European Union?

If not, sanctions relief would be only partial, and limited to aggressive players on the world stage.

So the best choice Congress has is to make clear what its position is, and conform to the Constitution rather than to a mooted and violated process that may not meet legal muster anyway. And regardless of the legal merits, every other nation on earth would know that this deal will only last as long as Barack Obama is president.

After all, even Hillary Clinton is now hedging her bets...

Christopher C. Hull, Ph.D., a former adjunct assistant professor at Georgetown University, is the immediate past chief of staff for Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa. He works with clients including the Center for Security Policy, a nonpartisan, nonprofit national security think tank.