Child Care and Development Blcok Grant of 2014
Floor Speech
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Mr. MURPHY. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, just to make a few brief comments prior to my colleagues speaking on their request on the underlying bill, it is my understanding that the request is to bring a bill to the floor that would create an extraconstitutional process by which the House and the Senate would convene on a possible statement or resolution of disapproval on an agreement that has heretofore not been negotiated between the United States and our allies and Iran with respect to that country's nuclear program and nuclear ambitions.
I think we are all of one mind in that we are hopeful that these negotiations are concluded successfully, that we are able to stand together and say that we have used diplomacy rather than military might in order to dislodge from Iran any prospect of obtaining a nuclear weapon. But we are at an absolutely critical moment in these negotiations, and I believe the underlying bill which is being asked to be brought to the floor today would undermine those negotiations by sending a message that Congress does not stand with the President as he and his team negotiate these final agreements.
There is going to be a legitimate question as to what Congress's role is, but we won't know that until we see the agreement. We won't know whether it rises to the level of a treaty. We won't know whether we need to pass legislation to immediately repeal sanctions versus having them temporarily suspended. This bill has not gone through the committee process.
While it raises, I think, some legitimate questions of what Congress's role is going to be, if there is ultimately an agreement worked out between the P5+1 and Iran, it is premature at this point to set into law a process by which we would vote an agreement up or down until we understand what the agreement is in the first place.
That is my primary reason for standing here and ultimately registering an objection. I do worry as well that it would send a fairly chilling message to our negotiators and to those who are in the room if the signal is that the Congress is not giving the full authority to this President under the Constitution in order to negotiate an agreement which is ultimately going to be, we hope, to the benefit of the United States and global security.
I know my colleagues have time constraints and want to speak on this underlying bill. So, with that, I object to the unanimous consent request
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