US Senate Democrats and Republicans agreed on Thursday to delay a vote on a closely watched bill that would require President Barack Obama to seek congressional approval of any nuclear agreement with Iran.
The announcement, came after an intense lobbying push by Obama and administration officials.
In a joint statement, Corker and Senator Robert Menendez, the top Democrat on the foreign relations panel, said they agreed to “mark up” after Congress returns from its early-April recess, in order to win the strongest possible support for it.
“We have been working together very closely to ensure we have the strongest vote possible on the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act and to achieve that result, we have agreed to a markup of the bill” in the committee on April 14, the senators said.
The bill would require the U.S. administration to wait 60 days before suspending any sanctions against the Iranian regime.
During that 60-day period, lawmakers would have the opportunity to approve, reject or take no action on the deal. The administration would also be required to provide regular assurances that the Iranian regime had not breached any provisions in the agreement.
Lawmakers and aides say there is a good chance that enough Democrats will join Republicans to give the bill the 60 votes it would need to advance in the Senate.
If passed by the Senate, the legislation would likely move quickly in the House of Representatives, where Republicans hold 245 seats, compared to just 188 Democrats.
