Tim Kaine on Senate Iran deal cloture vote

U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations & Armed Services Committees and co-author of the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, released the following statement on today’s cloture vote on a resolution of disapproval of the Iran nuclear deal. While procedural in nature, a vote against cloture in this case is a vote for the Iran deal as a result of Republican obstruction on an up or down vote:

“As a strong supporter of the nuclear agreement with Iran, I voted against cloture on a Republican resolution of disapproval today. With this deal, negotiators honored the best traditions of American diplomacy and achieved a dramatic improvement over the status quo that will improve global security for at least 15 years, and likely longer.

“In the last few days, Senate Republicans have blocked two opportunities to have an up or down vote on the resolution of disapproval under the 60 vote threshold agreed upon in the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, of which I was a co-author. Their unwillingness to allow an up or down vote on this important national security issue is unfortunate and disappointing.”