On the recordMay 8, 2019
Madam President, 5 years ago, I, along with 46 of my fellow Senators, released a letter to Iran's Ayatollah letting him know that any nuclear deal he reached with President Obama wouldn't be worth the paper it was printed on unless it was ratified as a treaty by two- thirds of the U.S. Senate. We wrote: ``The next president could revoke such an executive agreement with the stroke of a pen and future Congresses could modify the terms of the agreement at any time.'' A lot of people were upset by this letter, but I don't really know why. All it did was state a straightforward lesson on American civics-- something any ninth grader who has read our Constitution should know. Yet the Ayatollah agreed to a deal with President Obama that was not, in fact, approved by two-thirds of the Senate. In fact, it was almost rejected by three-fifths of the Senate. Just as we cautioned, not 3 years later, a new President did, in fact, revoke that deal with the stroke of a pen. Today is the 1-year anniversary of America's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, and a lot has happened since then. Just this morning, Iran threatened to renew its rush to the bomb, stockpiling more uranium and producing more heavy water--even threatening to enrich nuclear fuels to dangerous levels in the months ahead if the civilized world does not cave to its demands. We know better than to cave in to the ayatollahs.…





