WASHINGTON (CNN) — A day after the Senate secured President Barack Obama’s Iran nuclear deal, blocking a Republican resolution to scuttle it, the GOP-led House pressed forward with a pair of votes designed to show a majority of the chamber disapproves of the agreement.
The votes can’t prevent the administration from starting to implement the agreement later this month, but Republicans want to send a political message.
A bill approving of the nuclear deal was resoundingly defeated, with 25 Democrats joining House Republicans in expressing opposition to the pact. One Republican, Kentucky Rep. Tom Massie, voted “present.”
On a second vote largely along party lines, the House passed legislation stating that the President could not unilaterally lift statutory sanctions. The measure was non-binding, and Senate Republicans have no plans to advance the bill. The vote was 247 to 186, with two Democrats voting with Republicans.
Paving the way for a possible legal challenge, the House passed a non-binding resolution on Thursday stating that the President violated the law by not giving Congress the details on “side deals” to the nuclear agreement related to inspections of Iranian sites, which are government by secret arrangements between Tehran and the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency.
