Kirk-Brown Budget Amendment to Immediately Impose Sanctions on Iran Passes Senate Unanimously

Senate Agrees Iranian Regime Must Be Accountable If It Cheats on Nuclear Agreements

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) celebrated the Senate’s unanimous 100-to-0 vote to pass his bipartisan budget amendment to impose sanctions on Iran. Kirk Amendment #545 to the Senate Budget Resolution (S. Con. Res. 11) supports the Kirk-Menendez principle of immediately re-imposing waived sanctions and imposing new sanctions if Iran cheats on the interim nuclear deal or a final nuclear deal. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking Committee, co-sponsored the Kirk amendment, which draws language directly from the Nuclear Weapon Free Iran Act of 2015 (S. 269), co-authored by Senators Kirk and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.).

“By passing the bipartisan Kirk-Brown amendment to impose sanctions on Iran, the Senate voted for the security of the United States and Israel and against making dangerous nuclear concessions to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The unanimous vote for the Kirk-Brown amendment signals the Senate’s strong support for the Kirk-Menendez Iran sanctions bill, which stands ready now for a full Senate vote,” said Senator Kirk.

Additional Background:

• The bipartisan and uncontroversial principle of imposing sanctions on Iran if it cheats on nuclear deals is embodied in Section 208 of the Nuclear Weapon Free Iran Act of 2015, a bipartisan bill co-authored by Senators Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.).
• Section 208 of the Kirk-Menendez Iran legislation would immediately re-impose waived sanctions and impose new sanctions on Iran if the president cannot certify to Congress that Iran is full compliance with nuclear agreements with the United States and its negotiating partners.
• On January 29, 2015, the Senate Banking Committee passed the Kirk-Menendez Iran legislation in a strong bipartisan 18-to-4 vote, in which the Committee carried all 12 Republicans and 6 out of 10 Democrats.
• Twelve Democratic Senators wrote a letter to President Obama on January 26th in support of the Kirk-Menendez legislation, vowing: “After March 24, we will only vote for this legislation on the Senate floor if Iran fails to reach agreement on a political framework that addresses all parameters of a comprehensive agreement.”
• As of March 25, 2015, Iran has failed “to reach agreement on a political framework that addresses all parameters of a comprehensive agreement.”
• Iran is a theocratic dictatorship that sponsors and exports terrorism, egregiously violates human rights, has worked with terrorists to kill more Americans than the Islamic State, and now has a decades-long record of cheating to get nuclear weapons-making capability.