10 Democrats Put Brakes on Iran Bill Fast Track
Ten senators who caucus with Democrats are objecting to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s plan to bring the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015 directly to the Senate floor for a vote, thereby bypassing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The senators, among them Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), sent a letter to McConnell urging him not to fast track the bill, but rather to allow for negotiations with Iran to continue until at least the March 24 deadline for a political framework agreement. Because a final agreement is not expected until June, there is no reason to rush the vote, the senators wrote.
“We are disappointed that you have proceeded outside of regular order, which suggests that the goal of this maneuver is to score partisan political points, rather than pursue a substantive strategy to counter Iran’s nuclear ambitions,” the senators wrote.
The senators also wrote they would only vote for the bill after it has gone through regular procedures and been debated by the Foreign Relations Committee. Signing the letter were Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), Bill Nelson (D-Fl.), Joe Donnelly (D-In.), Angus King (I-Me.), Chris Coons (D-De), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.)
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO