Ted Cruz has a plan to try and keep Biden from rejoining the disastrous Iran deal and the Paris climate accord. Which is, in short, to get Trump to send both treaties to the Senate for ratification so they can fail:
RCP – In the waning days of the Trump administration, Sen. Ted Cruz has quietly been urging the president to submit both the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate agreement to the Senate for ratification. But not because they would succeed; rather, because they would inevitably fail.
The equivalent of a constitutional tripwire, Cruz’s gambit would force a showdown between the Senate and President-elect Joe Biden. President Trump pulled out of the agreements; Biden has promised to recommit the United States to both without congressional approval. In a letter obtained by RealClearPolitics, the Texas senator is pressing both the president and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to submit the pacts before Trump leaves office.
Last night I urged POTUS to submit the Iran Deal & Paris Agreement to the Senate as treaties. By submitting these disastrous deals to the Senate, we can provide advice & consent if a future administration attempts to revive them.
Read my letter 👇 pic.twitter.com/0Qa8Fps5Yb
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) December 22, 2020
“Your administration has rightly changed course as a matter of substantive policy by withdrawing from both the Iran Deal and the Paris Agreement. This was a great accomplishment for the American people,” Cruz wrote.
“I urge you now also to remedy the harm done to the balance of powers by submitting the Iran Deal and the Paris Agreement to the Senate as treaties,” Cruz continued. “Only by so doing will the Senate be able to satisfy its constitutional role to provide advice and consent in the event any future administration attempts to revive these dangerous deals.”
Cruz has become a stalwart Trump ally, and if the president takes his advice, he could throw a wrench into the gears of the incoming administration before Biden can even fully nominate his Cabinet. The incoming president has promised that he would rejoin the Paris Agreement “on day one,” and pledged to revive the Iranian nuclear deal he helped negotiate as vice president. Republicans, meanwhile, are unified in their opposition to both.
A vote against them would signal GOP opposition to the world and, they hope, undermine any unilateral action by Biden to rejoin the agreements. One senior congressional aide told RCP that sending them to die in the Senate “would be the final nail in the coffin.”
Central to Cruz’s argument is the contention that the Paris accords and Iran deal are actually treaties. As such, they are subject to the Senate’s Article 2 “advice and consent” role and require two-thirds of the chamber for ratification.
A 2015 concurrent resolution, co-sponsored by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Majority Whip John Thune, condemned President Obama for joining the Paris agreement without Senate approval and called on the White House to submit it to the chamber. The Obama administration waved away such complaints. Although now more than four years removed, Cruz is banking on lingering Republican resentment to spark last-minute action.
Cruz isn’t the only one pushing for this…
Cruz isn’t alone in trying to force another showdown. Sen. Lindsey Graham, another Trump ally, tweeted last week that he is working behind the scenes to secure a vote on the two pacts. He warned that rejoining the Iran nuclear deal “would be the most destructive decision a Biden administration could make regarding stability in the Middle East.” Rejoining the climate agreement, he added, would mean “a big win for China and India.”
I sincerely hope Trump follows Cruz’s advice because this really is a big deal.