III 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. RES. 251 

Expressing the sense of the Senate that the congressional review provision 

of the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015 does not apply 

to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action announced on July 14, 

2015, because the President failed to transmit the entire agreement 

as required by such Act, and that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of 

Action would only preempt existing Iran sanctions laws as ‘‘the supreme 

Law of the Land’’ if ratified by the Senate as a treaty with the concurrence of two thirds of the Senators present pursuant to Article II, 

section 2, clause 2, of the Constitution or if Congress were to enact 

new implementing legislation that supersedes the mandatory statutory 

sanctions that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action announced on 

July 14, 2015, purports to supersede. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

SEPTEMBER 10, 2015 

Mr. JOHNSON (for himself, Mr. TOOMEY, and Mr. LEE) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations 

RESOLUTION 

Expressing the sense of the Senate that the congressional 

review provision of the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review 

Act of 2015 does not apply to the Joint Comprehensive 

Plan of Action announced on July 14, 2015, because 

the President failed to transmit the entire agreement 

as required by such Act, and that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action would only preempt existing Iran 

sanctions laws as ‘‘the supreme Law of the Land’’ if 

ratified by the Senate as a treaty with the concurrence 


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•SRES 251 IS 

of two thirds of the Senators present pursuant to Article 

II, section 2, clause 2, of the Constitution or if Congress 

were to enact new implementing legislation that supersedes the mandatory statutory sanctions that the Joint 

Comprehensive Plan of Action announced on July 14, 

2015, purports to supersede. 

Whereas the United States Government has enacted and enforced multiple statutes and regulations that impose comprehensive sanctions on Iran and on companies and individuals doing business with Iran; 

Whereas Article II, section 2, clause 2 of the Constitution 

provides that the President ‘‘shall have Power, by and 

with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make 

Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur’’; 

Whereas Article VI, clause 2 of the Constitution provides that 

‘‘This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States 

which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority 

of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the 

Land’’; 

Whereas, on April 28, 2015, 39 Senators voted for Senate 

Amendment 1150, the purpose of which was ‘‘To declare 

that any agreement reached by the President relating to 

the nuclear program of Iran is deemed a treaty that is 

subject to the advice and consent of the Senate’’; 

Whereas, according to subsection (a)(1) of section 135 of the 

Atomic Energy Act of 1954 (42 U.S.C. 2160e), as added 

by section 2 of the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act 

of 2015, which the President signed into law as Public 

Law 114–17 on May 22, 2015, ‘‘[n]ot later than 5 calVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:55 Sep 11, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR251.IS SR251

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endar days after reaching an agreement with Iran relating to the nuclear program of Iran, the President shall 

transmit to the appropriate congressional committees and 

leadership the agreement, as defined in subsection (h)(1), 

including all related materials and annexes’’; 

Whereas subsection (h)(1) of such section 135 defines the 

‘‘agreement’’ that the President ‘‘shall’’ transmit to Congress not later than 5 calendar days after reaching an 

agreement with Iran to include all ‘‘annexes, appendices, 

codicils, side agreements, implementing materials, documents, and guidance, technical or other understandings, 

and any related agreements, whether entered into or implemented prior to the agreement or to be entered into 

or implemented in the future’’; 

Whereas such section 135 further provides that a 60-day congressional review period will commence upon the President’s transmittal of the agreement, including all annexes, appendices, codicils, side agreements, implementing materials, documents, and guidance, technical or 

other understandings, and any related agreements, 

whether entered into or implemented prior to the agreement or to be entered into or implemented in the future; 

Whereas, on July 14, 2015, the Secretary of State announced 

a multilateral agreement with Iran and six other nations, 

labeled the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action 

(JCPOA), in Annex II of which the United States purports to agree that ‘‘[t]he United States commits to cease 

the application, and to seek such legislative action as may 

be appropriate to terminate, or modify to effectuate the 

termination of, all nuclear-related sanctions as specified 

in Sections 4.1–4.9 below,’’ and Sections 4.1–4.9 specifies the following United States statutes: ‘‘the Iran SancVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:55 Sep 11, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR251.IS SR251

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tions Act of 1996 (ISA), as amended by Section 102 of 

the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and 

Divestment Act of 2010 (CISADA) and Sections 201– 

207 and 311 of the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria 

Human Rights Act of 2012 (TRA); CISADA, as amended by Sections 214–216, 222, 224, 311–312, 402–403, 

and 605 of TRA and Section 1249 of the Iran Freedom 

and Counter-Proliferation Act of 2012 (IFCA); the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 

(NDAA), as amended by Sections 503–504 of TRA and 

Section 1250 of IFCA’’; 

Whereas the United States statutes specified in sections 4.1 

through 4.9 of Annex II, of which the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action purports to provide for United States 

agreement to ‘‘cease the application’’, may only be superseded by a Senate-ratified treaty or by new legislation; 

Whereas the United States statutes and regulations concerning Iran sanctions include section 2 of CISADA, in 

which Congress made comprehensive findings of fact concerning Iran, which remain true and accurate today, including that ‘‘[t]he illicit nuclear activities of the Government of Iran, combined with its development of unconventional weapons and ballistic missiles and its support 

for international terrorism, represent a threat to the security of the United States, its strong ally Israel, and 

other allies of the United States around the world’’; 

Whereas Congress also found in section 2(10) of CISADA 

that ‘‘[e]conomic sanctions imposed pursuant to the provisions of this Act, the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996, as 

amended by this Act, and the International Emergency 

Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.), and 

other authorities available to the United States to impose 


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economic sanctions to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, are necessary to protect the essential security interests of the United States’’; 

Whereas, based on the above and other similar statutory findings since 1979, the United States enacted ISA, 

CISADA, section 1245 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 (Public Law 112–81), 

the IFCA, and the TRA, as well as various preceding 

statutes that each of the named laws amended over time, 

and, taken as a whole, those Acts of Congress directed 

and authorized the Secretaries of State, Treasury, Defense, and Energy, and other Federal agencies, to promulgate and enforce implementing regulations, which 

they have done under the guidance of multiple executive 

orders and under close congressional oversight; 

Whereas the Department of Justice has prosecuted, or entered into non-prosecution agreements with, corporations 

and individuals for Iran sanctions violations under this 

body of law; 

Whereas existing legislation includes mandatory sanctions 

that may only be repealed or amended by law, including 

CISADA section 104, which provides that the Secretary 

of the Treasury shall prescribe regulations to prohibit or 

restrict correspondent accounts for foreign financial institutions that knowingly engage in a prohibited activity, 

and TRA section 202, which provides that the President 

shall impose statutorily prescribed sanctions with respect 

to persons that own, operate, control, or insure vessels 

used to transport crude oil from Iran to another country; 

Whereas the President’s authority to waive statutorily prescribed sanctions is limited, conditional, and circumscribed by law; 


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Whereas the period of five days for the President to transmit 

to Congress the ‘‘agreement with Iran relating to the nuclear program of Iran,’’ as defined in section 135 of the 

Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as added by section 2 of the 

Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015, began to 

run on July 14, 2015, and by July 19, 2015, the President had transmitted to Congress only part of the 

‘‘agreement with Iran relating to the nuclear program of 

Iran’’ reached five days earlier; 

Whereas the Administration publicly acknowledged on July 

22, 2015, that at least two side agreements existed that 

had not yet been provided to Congress, specifically between the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) 

and Iran, but has steadfastly refused to provide those 

agreements; 

Whereas such section 135 provides that the President ‘‘shall’’ 

transmit to Congress any agreement with Iran, ‘‘including all related materials and annexes’’, defined under 

such section to include ‘‘side agreements’’—with no statutory exceptions for either secret or unavailable (to the 

United States) side agreements—within five days of 

reaching such an agreement; and 

Whereas, as a result, the President has never fully transmitted to Congress the ‘‘agreement with Iran relating to 

the nuclear program of Iran’’ as defined by such section 

135, and specifically did not transmit the full agreement 

within the timeline mandated by law: Now, therefore, be 

it 

1 Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that— 

2 (1) the congressional review provision under 

3 section 135 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 (42 


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1 U.S.C. 2160e), as added by section 2 of the Iran 

2 Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015 (Public Law 

3 114–17), does not apply to the Joint Comprehensive 

4 Plan of Action announced on July 14, 2015, because 

5 the President failed to comply with the transmission 

6 to Congress provisions of such section 135; 

7 (2) because the President did not transmit to 

8 Congress ‘‘all related materials and annexes’’ within 

9 five days of reaching agreement with Iran, the statu10 tory congressional review provided for in such sec11 tion 135 did not occur, at least not in the manner 

12 envisioned by the members of Congress who voted 

13 for Public Law 114–17; 

14 (3) in light of the President’s failure to submit 

15 the entire ‘‘agreement with Iran relating to the nu16 clear program of Iran,’’ including side agreements, 

17 to Congress within five days, the congressional re18 view provision of such section 135 by its own terms 

19 was not applicable to the partial agreement that the 

20 President submitted to Congress, known as the 

21 JCPOA, and therefore in order for the substance of 

22 what was submitted to Congress to become ‘‘the su23 preme Law of the Land’’ pursuant to Article VI, 

24 clause 2 of the Constitution, it would need to be ei25 ther treated by the Senate as a treaty ‘‘provided two 


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1 thirds of the Senators present concur’’ pursuant to 

2 Article II, section 2, clause 2 of the Constitution, or 

3 Congress would need to enact new implementing leg4 islation that supersedes the mandatory statutory 

5 sanctions that the JCPOA purports to supersede; 

6 (4) the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Account7 ability, and Divestment Act of 2010 (CISADA), sec8 tion 1245 of the National Defense Authorization Act 

9 for Fiscal Year 2012 (Public Law 112–81), the Iran 

10 Freedom and Counter-Proliferation Act of 2012 

11 (IFCA), and the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria 

12 Human Rights Act of 2012 (TRA) remain ‘‘the su13 preme Law of the Land’’ unless and until a Senate14 ratified treaty or duly enacted statute repeals or oth15 erwise supersedes them and becomes ‘‘the supreme 

16 Law of the Land’’ pursuant to Article VI, clause 2 

17 of the Constitution; and 

18 (5) the Senate, which has the power to consent 

19 to treaties under Article II, section 2, clause 2 of the 

20 Constitution, has not and does not consent to the 

21 JCPOA, which is therefore not ‘‘the supreme Law of 

22 the Land’’, and the President therefore has a con23 stitutional duty to ensure that the Iran sanctions 

24 laws, including CISADA, section 1245 of the Na25 tional Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 


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1 2012 (Public Law 112–81), IFCA, and TRA, con2 tinue to be faithfully executed. 

Æ 


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