Today the House appointed representatives to the House-Senate conference on HR 2194 (which is now carrying the Senate-given name -- the "Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability and Divestment Act of 2009".) This comes more than a month after the Senate amended the text of HR 2194 on March 11th - deleting the entire House text and inserting their own (the text of S. 2799) - and appointed its own conferees.
While House appointees were formally appointed only today, it is well-known that over the past month House and Senate staff have been working to reconcile the bills. It is also well-known that Administration officials have been weighing in to try to convince key members to accept what the Administration considers to be the minimum changes necessary to ensure the bill does not directly conflict with the President's Iran strategy and efforts.
Now that House conferees have been appointed, it is anticipated that the conference will formally conclude its work quickly - as indicated by House Committee on Foreign Affairs Chairman Howard Berman (D-CA), who http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=10126588 (link has expired) stated recently that he wanted Congress to pass the final version of the bill before the end of April. UPDATED: The motion to instruct that accompanied the appointment of House conferees stated that conferees were "to complete their work and present a conference report and joint explanatory statement by no later than May 28, 2010" -- potentially indicating that there will still be significant work completed in conference.
In response to today's events, APN sent a message to every conferee (House and Senate) - the message and the list of conferees is after the break.
While House appointees were formally appointed only today, it is well-known that over the past month House and Senate staff have been working to reconcile the bills. It is also well-known that Administration officials have been weighing in to try to convince key members to accept what the Administration considers to be the minimum changes necessary to ensure the bill does not directly conflict with the President's Iran strategy and efforts.
Now that House conferees have been appointed, it is anticipated that the conference will formally conclude its work quickly - as indicated by House Committee on Foreign Affairs Chairman Howard Berman (D-CA), who http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=10126588 (link has expired) stated recently that he wanted Congress to pass the final version of the bill before the end of April. UPDATED: The motion to instruct that accompanied the appointment of House conferees stated that conferees were "to complete their work and present a conference report and joint explanatory statement by no later than May 28, 2010" -- potentially indicating that there will still be significant work completed in conference.
In response to today's events, APN sent a message to every conferee (House and Senate) - the message and the list of conferees is after the break.
Dear [ ],
I am writing today concerning House and Senate efforts to reconcile their respective versions of new Iran sanctions legislation (HR 2194).
As a conferee, your boss' role is critical. Amazingly, this far-reaching legislation was passed with very little consideration, debate or oversight in either the House or Senate, and under intense pressure from outside groups.
This House-Senate conference thus represents the first and last chance for this legislation to be thoroughly and responsibly scrutinized. It is also the first and last opportunity for the text to be amended to ensure that Congress does not send the President a bill that directly threatens his efforts to address the very serious US foreign policy and national security challenges posed today by Iran.
In their current forms, both the House and the Senate versions of HR 2194 would do just that. As written, these bills:
This is in contrast to the often-stated and laudable objective of the legislation: to provide the president with additional tools to use in his efforts to deal with this critical foreign policy issue.
During the reconciliation process, we urge you to work to ensure that the final version of this bill brings it into line with Congress' intent and with US national security interests by:
The House-Senate conference offers the last chance for Congress to do the right thing here: to amend this bill to make it consistent with a rational approach to Iran, with the national interests of the United States, and with the multilateral approach that is being pursued by the President of the United States. We urge your boss, as a conferee on HR 2194, to not miss this opportunity.
Sincerely,
Lara Friedman
Director of Policy and Government Relations
Americans for Peace Now
===========================================
House Conferees
Howard L. Berman (D-CA)
Gary L. Ackerman (D-NY)
Brad Sherman (D-CA)
Jim Costa (D-CA)
David Scott (D-GA)
Joseph Crowley (D-NY)
Ron Klein (D-FL)
Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL)
Dan Burton (R-IN)
Edward R. Royce (R-CA)
Mike Pence (R-IN)
Barney Frank (D-MA)
Gregory W. Meeks (D-NY)
Scott Garrett (R-NJ)
Sander M. Levin (D-MI)
John S. Tanner (D-TN)
Dave Camp (R-MI)
Senate Conferees
Dodd (D-CT)
Kerry (D-MA)
Lieberman (I-CT)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Shelby (R-AL)
Bennett (R-UT)
Lugar (R-IN)
I am writing today concerning House and Senate efforts to reconcile their respective versions of new Iran sanctions legislation (HR 2194).
As a conferee, your boss' role is critical. Amazingly, this far-reaching legislation was passed with very little consideration, debate or oversight in either the House or Senate, and under intense pressure from outside groups.
This House-Senate conference thus represents the first and last chance for this legislation to be thoroughly and responsibly scrutinized. It is also the first and last opportunity for the text to be amended to ensure that Congress does not send the President a bill that directly threatens his efforts to address the very serious US foreign policy and national security challenges posed today by Iran.
In their current forms, both the House and the Senate versions of HR 2194 would do just that. As written, these bills:
- take authority away from the President on an issue critical to US national security.
- undermine the ability of the United States to gain the support and cooperation of other countries in order to deal effectively with the major national security challenges posed by Iran.
- target the Iranian people, in the hope that if the people become miserable enough they will pressure their government to change course. They send the unintended message to the Iranian people that the US is indifferent to their suffering and ready to make them suffer more. This is a strategy that few experts believe will work, and a strategy that has a very poor track record in other contexts (Iraq, Cuba, Gaza). Indeed, experience has demonstrated with sanctions like these, the most likely and immediate result will be a backlash by the people of Iran against the United States, not against the Iranian regime.
This is in contrast to the often-stated and laudable objective of the legislation: to provide the president with additional tools to use in his efforts to deal with this critical foreign policy issue.
During the reconciliation process, we urge you to work to ensure that the final version of this bill brings it into line with Congress' intent and with US national security interests by:
- Clarifying throughout the bill that the target of US sanctions and policy is not the Iranian people, but the Iranian leadership.
- Making any new sanctions - especially sanctions that could be viewed as targeting the Iranian people - discretionary, rather than mandatory.
- Ensuring that new requirements do not undermine the President's efforts to rally multilateral cooperation.
- Adding provisions that will facilitate US humanitarian assistance to the Iranian people and sanction individuals and companies that aid and abet the Iranian government's efforts to quash free speech and open communications (along the lines of HR 4303 and HR 4301).
The House-Senate conference offers the last chance for Congress to do the right thing here: to amend this bill to make it consistent with a rational approach to Iran, with the national interests of the United States, and with the multilateral approach that is being pursued by the President of the United States. We urge your boss, as a conferee on HR 2194, to not miss this opportunity.
Sincerely,
Lara Friedman
Director of Policy and Government Relations
Americans for Peace Now
===========================================
House Conferees
Howard L. Berman (D-CA)
Gary L. Ackerman (D-NY)
Brad Sherman (D-CA)
Jim Costa (D-CA)
David Scott (D-GA)
Joseph Crowley (D-NY)
Ron Klein (D-FL)
Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL)
Dan Burton (R-IN)
Edward R. Royce (R-CA)
Mike Pence (R-IN)
Barney Frank (D-MA)
Gregory W. Meeks (D-NY)
Scott Garrett (R-NJ)
Sander M. Levin (D-MI)
John S. Tanner (D-TN)
Dave Camp (R-MI)
Senate Conferees
Dodd (D-CT)
Kerry (D-MA)
Lieberman (I-CT)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Shelby (R-AL)
Bennett (R-UT)
Lugar (R-IN)
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Thank You Ms. Friedman for keeping us all informed on such an important bill!
I see that the Senate amended the bill entirely with text that could be deleterious and more far-reaching than the bill passed in the house (HR 2194).
If that is the case, then the Conference Committee is going to have a very imperative and complicated role in compromising the two versions of the bill.
I hope for exactly what you Ms. Friedman have so eloquently put in your letter to the conferees; that sanctions should be against the policy-makers in Iran and never intended at all costs at the citizens of whom, seeing from the recent Presidential elections, many are opposed to the Ahmadinijad administration.
Again sanctions should not be our only option on the table but should come alongside diplomatic efforts as well, which I am sure Obama is more than readily going to progress.
Ms. Friedman, I am not too sure about the entire effects and language of this bill but could it not be ruled unconstitutional if it intrudes too deeply into the foreign policy making powers of the President?
I hope in earnest that it certainly does not and that this bill can be compromised sincerely. However seeing that Sen. Lieberman has gotten a position as a Senate Conferee, he might be willing to go more hard-line than most others.