The bill is largely a catchall of minor provisions, senators’ pet ideas and tweaks to existing law.
The bill came to the floor last Thursday, but was dropped when several Republicans objected it was too weak and one objected it was too strong. It had also been brought up last year and pulled when other objections surfaced. So, it finally passed Monday on the third try.
Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was the one who found the bill too strong. He is the son of Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination. Father and son both oppose military action against Iran, putting them on the outside of their party.
Rand Paul sought and won an addition to the bill saying nothing in it “shall be construed as a declaration of war or an authorization of the use of force against Iran or Syria.”
After such tweaks, the bill was brought back up Monday and passed on a voice vote.
The House passed a sanctions bill 410-11 last December. The two bills will now go to a conference committee of the two chambers to iron out the differences.
Perhaps the most important section of the Senate bill would require that any firm whose stock is sold on a stock exchange in the United States must report to the US Securities and Exchange Commission on any business it does with Iran. That is likely to encourage firms doing limited business with Iran to drop that business. Firms that are dependent on business with Iran would more likely drop their stock listings in the United States.
The bill also extends sanctions to foreign satellite companies that provide service to the Iranian state in an effort to knock Iran off satellites. It remains to be seen if those sanctions will really bite the satellite companies.
The bill would also deny visas to people and freeze the assets of firms and individuals supplying Iran with technology that could be used to crack down on dissenters, such as surveillance equipment, tear gas and rubber bullets.
It also extends existing sanctions to close a loophole that was discovered after the last sanctions law was enacted last year.
And it would apply sanctions to people and companies involved in joint ventures with Iran to mine and move uranium to Iran. This responds to numerous news reports of Iran trying to sign uranium mining deals with poor African states. UN sanctions already ban the sale of uranium to Iran and are thus more far-reaching.
Over in the House of Representatives, two pieces of legislation dealing with Iran were passed last week. The first was criticized as lowering the threshold for war because it said the administration should not tolerate an Iran with “a nuclear weapons capability,” a vague and undefined phrase.
However, this legislation was just a resolution—language that lacks the binding force of law and merely expresses the opinion of the House of Representatives.
The other legislation, however, was part of the National Defense Authorization Act, which will become law. Section 1221, as passed, reads: “It shall be the policy of the United States to take all necessary measures, including military action if required, to prevent Iran from threatening the United States, its allies, or Iran’s neighbors with a nuclear weapon.”
After passing the House, that provision goes to the US Senate where its fate remains to be determined.
The language authorizes military action “if required.” Presumably that leaves it up to the president to determine if military action is required, whoever that president may be at the time. It also is the reverse of the language Sen. Paul got added in the Senate sanctions bill.