RELEASE:
Palazzo Demands Senate Institute “Nuclear Option” to Stop Iran Deal
Washington, DC – Congressman Steven Palazzo (MS-4) sent a letter tonight to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell strongly urging him to use any and all possible options to block the president’s Iran deal. Most specifically, the letter insists the Senate institute the “nuclear option” to require only a 50% +1 majority for the passage of the motion of disapproval on the Iran agreement.
In the letter, Congressman Palazzo calls on Leader McConnell and the Senate to act, stating:
“The President’s deal threatens not only the safety and security of our allies in the Middle East, it also threatens the United States. Iran has time and time again proven untrustworthy, and has continuously echoed its call for “Death to America”…As the duly-elected representatives of the United States, we simply cannot put our citizens and our allies in what we know to be real and serious danger. Accordingly, the time for decorum having passed, it is vital that you institute the “nuclear option” to require a 50+1 majority for the passage of this motion of disapproval.
If Minority Leader Reid was willing to use this tactic to push through something as simple as judicial nominees despite the objections of Republicans, it is time that Republican leadership utilizes the procedure as matter of national and global security.
I implore you to use every tool at your disposal to stop what could be the most dangerous foreign policy decision in decades.”
To institute the “nuclear option”, the majority in the Senate can change the rules to require a majority (50% +1) vote to limit debate. In 2013, Harry Reid used this procedural motion to change the rules of the Senate to require simply a 50% +1 vote to approve a judicial nominee. If the nuclear option is used, the Senate could kill a Democrat filibuster on the resolution of disapproval and allow it to be passed with a simple majority vote.
9/8/15
