WASHINGTON — Democratic lawmakers continue to argue that Congress should vote on any deal the White House and five world powers reach with Iran.

The Obama administration says it wants to find a way for lawmakers to weigh in on any nuclear deal without scuttling a potential pact that began to fall into place last week.

At the same time, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., has scheduled a markup for next Tuesday on a bill that would create a framework for lawmakers to vote on congressional sanctions already in place against Tehran.

As White House officials seek some kind of middle ground between the Corker bill and no congressional vote, some influential Democrats continue advocating for lawmakers to review any deal and hold votes.

Rep. Steve Israel of New York, a House Democratic leadership member, says lawmakers have a constitutional "responsibility" to weigh in on any Iran deal.

Israel told MSNBC on Wednesday that he would have pushed for a congressional vote had the Republican George W. Bush administration reached a deal with Tehran.

He said the broad terms of a deal that emerged from talks with Iranian officials last week are "not as bad as some people say" nor "as good as they could be."

Israel said he wants US and Western negotiators to use the weeks before a June 30 final deadline to "improve the parameters" of the potential deal. And then, he said, Congress should vote on it.

Another Democratic advocate of a vote, Senate Foreign Relations Committee member Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., told WTOP radio on Wednesday the parameters of a deal largely worked out by US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart have some "very positive" elements.

Still, he said, "Congress needs to look at this."

Congressional approval, Kaine argued, "would give our own negotiators a good, strong hand" in the ongoing negotiations.


Email: jbennett@defensenews.com

Twitter: @bennettjohnt

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