Senate votes down Iran amendment to energy spending bill

The Senate on Wednesday did not approve a controversial Iran measure that has for weeks held up work on an energy and water funding package. 

The 57-42 vote, which fell short of the 60 votes needed to pass, clears the way for passage of the $37.5 billion spending bill. 

{mosads}Before the vote, the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said dispensing with the Iran amendment would allow the spending bill to move forward, and quickly. 

“I believe we ought to be easily able to finish the bill today,” he said. “I think we should finish it today.”  

Wednesday’s vote was the fourth time the Senate considered — directly or with the spending bill as a proxy — the Iran amendment. The measure, from Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), would block the United States from buying Iranian heavy water, a component used in nuclear reactors. 

Under the terms of the nuclear deal, Iran is required to reduce its stock of the fuel. The U.S. said last month it would spend about $8 million to purchase heavy water from Tehran. 

Cotton and other Republicans have said the United States shouldn’t make those purchases, equating them to subsidizing Iran’s nuclear program. Cotton introduced the amendment to the energy and water bill to prevent such purchases. 

Democrats balked, however, saying the amendment would earn the bill a veto from President Obama. Though the amendment had not previously been scheduled for a vote, they said even the possibility of its inclusion in the spending bill would sink it, and they blocked three previous procedural votes on the measure because of the Cotton amendment. 

Most Democrats voted against Cotton’s amendment Wednesday, as did some Republicans. Alexander, for one, said he worried that if the United States didn’t purchase Iran’s heavy water, countries like North Korea might buy it instead. 

Cotton said he would withdraw his amendment if the Senate didn’t move forward with it.

With the Iran amendment out of the way, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said she and Democrats are ready to move forward with the energy and water spending bill. If passed, the bill would be the first appropriations package to clear the Senate this year. 

“Both the chairman [Alexander] and I have been here for a long time, and we have been here when appropriations bills have passed, and the key to doing that is keeping poison pulls off the appropriations bills so they can pass quickly,” she said. 

“How do we start this appropriations process with a presidential veto in the wings?” she asked. “I don’t think we do.”