BURGESS EVERETT
politico.com
February 25, 2014
Senate Republicans are demanding a vote on new Iran sanctions as part of an unrelated bill.
Still miffed that they didn’t get an Iran vote as part of a 2013 defense bill, the GOP has rolled sanctions language authored by Sens. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) into its alternative to the Democratic veterans benefits’ bill written by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
By calling for the Senate to vote on a substitute written by Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Republicans are hoping to force Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) into holding a vote that he has repeatedly spurned in recent months.
“We’ve been trying for months to get a debate and a vote on the Kirk-Menendez Iran sanctions bill,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters Tuesday. “We’ll be discussing it at length on the floor on why we should go forward with that legislation and why we ought to get a vote on it, because it’s a very time sensitive matter.”
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