During his appearance on Meet the Press today, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) misrepresented the law on the Iranian sanctions, incorrectly arguing that President Obama is required to get additional approval from Congress before waiving or modifying sanctions as part of a negotiated deal.
In addition, by ignoring the existing law, Senator Kaine obscured a larger question: are certain Democrats cooperating with Republicans to inappropriately undercut the President's authority in these sensitive diplomatic negotiations?
Senator Kaine attempted to distinguish a new category of sanctions - "Congressional sanctions" -- and strongly suggested that the President lacked authority to waive or modify such sanctions without additional Congressional approval:
SEN. TIM KAINE:
... However, let's be realistic here. The deal that is being negotiated with Iran is about what will Iran do to get out from other congressional sanctions.
And so it is unrealistic to think that Congress is not going to be involved in looking at a final deal. I am a pro-diplomacy senator. And I supported the negotiations to this point. But any deal that touches upon the congressional statutory sanctions is going to get a review of Congress.
...
All our bill does is sets up the process under which Congress reviews a deal. And here's what it does. If the White House gives sanctions relief under executive sanctions, they have complete authority to do that without Congress.
If they want to give international sanctions relief and can convince partners to do that, they can do that without Congress. Only when they touch the congressional sanctions must Congress get involved. And we have a 60-day period either to approve the congressional sanctions relief, to disapprove it, or take no action and no action is defined as approval.
This is a very bipartisan and deliberative approach to looking at something that is fundamentally about our nation's security interest. And if they're going to unwind congressional sanctions, Congress has got to be involved. http://www.nbcnews.com/...
Senator Kaine is wrong. The President not only presently has the authority to waive or modify sanctions against Iran, but he has such authority
because Congress already has spoken on the issue and expressly gave the President such powers in the statutes enabling sanctions against Iran. Stated another way, President Obama is currently acting consistent with "a very bipartisan and deliberative approach" under existing law. (For a good summary of how the President's discretion operates under the existing law see this article by Rachel Cohen.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/...) In addition, there is no thing as "Congressional sanctions"; there are only U.S. sanctions passed by Congress and signed into law by the President.
In truth, Senator Kaine is arguing that we should change the existing law to take-back authority Congress previously granted to the President. That also explains why he feels the need to propose new legislation: because Congress already has been "involved" but is now considering whether to change the rules.
Senator Kaine's rhetoric also obscures a larger debate: should Democrats be cooperating with Republicans to undercut the President's existing authority and in this context?
Maybe so, but - unlike Senator Kaine - advocates of such an approach would need to make an honest and strong argument for doing so. After all, Congress granted the President these discretionary powers, watched for months as the President negotiated towards a crucial nuclear arms agreement with Iran - including with the participation of England, France, Germany, Russia and China - and now, at the eleventh hour, Congress proposes to remove the President's existing authority, insert Congress into the negotiations for the first time, and effectively give Congress a veto-type power over this multi-national negotiation.
What Senator Kaine is proposing reminds me of the situation where Speaker Boehner had no authority in the debt ceiling negotiations and exasperated everyone with the realization that he not only needed to continually "check back" with House Republicans for approval, but that he had no chance of obtaining such approval. I am not aware of any previous time where we have decided that it is smart to set up the U.S. President as a similar figurehead, unable to command respect or confidence on international stage.
Again, maybe Senator Kaine thinks it is a good idea to turn President Obama into a version of Speaker Obama. Count me as unpersuaded.