Ted Deutch : Reps. Deutch and Price Lead over 180 Democrats on Letter to Pres. Trump on Iran Nuclear Agreement

On Wednesday, October 4, Representatives Ted Deutch (D-FL) and David Price (D-NC) sent a letter to President Trump signed by over 180 Members of Congress, including the entire House Democratic Leadership, urging the President to recertify Iran's compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Announced in July of 2015, the JCPOA is an international agreement negotiated by the 'P5+1' (United States, China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, and Germany), the European Union, and Iran that sought to cut off Iran's path to nuclear weapons capability.

The letter comes in response to recent suggestions by President Trump that the administration may withhold certification of Iran's compliance with the JCPOA, which must be re-certified every three months under the terms of the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act (INARA). INARA also requires the President to provide Congress with credible evidence of Iranian noncompliance, should violations of the JCPOA occur. No such evidence has been provided to Congress to-date, and the International Atomic Energy Agency, U.S. military and intelligence officials, and U.S. allies have indicated that Iran remains in technical compliance with the agreement.

'We forced Iran to the negotiating table in the first place because of the multilateral sanctions imposed on Iran by the U.S. and our global partners,' said Congressman Deutch. 'Now, we need the help of this international coalition to keep up the pressure on Iran for its other malign activities outside of the JCPOA - its support for terrorism, its gross human rights violations, and its ballistic missile weapons program. If President Trump decertifies Iranian compliance without clear evidence of Iranian violations, it will jeopardize this united front against Iran. The JCPOA is an imperfect agreement, but to address the problematic provisions including the sunset clauses, we will need stay in lockstep with our global partners.'

'For more than two years, the JCPOA has realized its objective of constraining Iran's nuclear program to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran,' said Congressman Price. 'Without ironclad evidence of Iranian violations of the agreement, withholding Iran's certification of JCPOA compliance would jeopardize our national security, harm our international relationships, and embolden Iran. We urge the President to heed the advice of his military and intelligence advisors rather than play politics with national security.'

In the letter, the Representatives emphasize that withholding certification without credible evidence of a material breach on the part of Iran would threaten national security, isolate the U.S. from our international partners and allies, and undermine efforts to defuse the nuclear crisis with North Korea. 'Absent credible and accurate information confirming a material breach, we are concerned that withholding certification of Iran's compliance or walking away from the JCPOA would harm our alliances, embolden Iran, and threaten U.S. national security. We are further concerned that non-certification based on justifications beyond the scope of the nuclear agreement would threaten global non-proliferation efforts and send exactly the wrong message to North Korea at the moment we are trying to diplomatically defuse that crisis.'

The full text of the letter can be viewed here.
Signatories include the following Members of the U.S. House of Representatives:

Adams, Alma
Aguilar, Pete
Barragan, Nanette Diaz
Bass, Karen
Beatty, Joyce
Bera, Ami
Beyer Jr., Donald S.
Bishop, Jr., Sanford D.
Blumenauer, Earl
Blunt Rochester, Lisa
Bonamici, Suzanne
Bordallo, Madeleine Z.
Brady, Robert
Brown, Anthony
Brownley, Julia
Bustos, Cheri
Butterfield, G.K.
Capuano, Michael E.
Carbajal, Salud O.
Cárdenas, Tony
Carson, Andre
Cartwright, Matt
Castor, Kathy
Castro, Joaquin
Chu, Judy
Cicilline, David N.
Clark, Katherine
Clarke, Yvette D.
Clay, William Lacy
Cleaver, II., Emanuel
Clyburn, James E.
Cohen, Steve
Coleman, Bonnie Watson
Connolly, Gerald E.
Conyers, Jr., John
Cooper, Jim
Costa, Jim
Courtney, Joe
Crist, Charlie
Crowley, Joseph
Cuellar, Henry
Cummings, Elijah E.
Davis, Danny K.
Davis, Susan
DeFazio, Peter A.
DeGette, Diana
Delaney, John K.
DeLauro, Rosa L.
DelBene, Suzan
Demings, Val
DeSaulnier, Mark
Deutch, Ted
Dingell, Debbie
Doggett, Lloyd
Doyle, Mike
Ellison, Keith
Engel, Eliot L.
Eshoo, Anna G.
Espaillat, Adriano
Esty, Elizabeth
Evans, Dwight
Foster, Bill
Frankel, Lois
Fudge, Marcia L.
Gabbard, Tulsi
Gallego, Ruben
Garamendi, John
Gomez, Jimmy
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Grijalva, Raul M.
Gutiérrez, Luis V.
Hanabusa, Colleen
Hastings, Alcee L.
Heck, Denny
Higgins, Brian
Himes, Jim
Hoyer, Steny H.
Huffman, Jared
Jackson Lee, Sheila
Jayapal, Pramila
Jeffries, Hakeem
Johnson, Eddie Bernice
Johnson, Hank
Kaptur, Marcy
Keating, William R.
Kelly, Robin L.
Kennedy, III, Joseph P.
Khanna, Ro
Kihuen, Ruben J.
Kildee, Dan
Kilmer, Derek
Krishnamoorthi, Raja
Kuster, Ann McLane
Langevin, Jim
Larsen, Rick
Larson, John
Lawrence, Brenda
Lawson, Alfred
Lee, Barbara
Levin, Sander
Lewis, John
Lieu, Ted W.
Loebsack, Dave
Lofgren, Zoe
Lowenthal, Alan
Lowey, Nita
Lujan Grisham, Michelle
Luján, Ben Ray
Lynch, Stephen F.
Maloney, Carolyn B.
Maloney, Sean Patrick
Matsui, Doris
McCollum, Betty
McEachin, A. Donald
McGovern, James P.
McNerney, Jerry
Meeks, Gregory W.
Meng, Grace
Moore, Gwen
Moulton, Seth
Nadler, Jerrold
Neal, Richard
Nolan, Rick
Norcross, Donald
Norton, Eleanor Holmes
O'Rourke, Beto
Pallone Jr., Frank
Panetta, Jimmy
Pascrell Jr., Bill
Payne Jr., Donald
Pelosi, Nancy
Perlmutter, Ed
Peters, Scott H.
Pingree, Chellie
Plaskett, Stacey
Pocan, Mark
Polis, Jared
Price, David E.
Quigley, Mike
Raskin, Jamie
Rice, Kathleen
Richmond, Cedric
Rosen, Jacky
Roybal-Allard, Lucille
Ruiz, Raul
Ruppersberger, Dutch
Rush, Bobby L.
Ryan, Tim
Sablan, Gregorio Kilili Camacho
Sánchez, Linda T.
Sarbanes, John
Schakowsky, Jan
Schiff, Adam
Schrader, Kurt
Scott, David
Scott, Robert C. 'Bobby'
Serrano, José E.
Sewell, Terri
Shea-Porter, Carol
Sires, Albio
Slaughter, Louise M.
Smith, Smith
Soto, Darren
Speier, Jackie
Suozzi, Thomas R.
Swalwell, Eric
Takano, Mark
Thompson, Bennie G.
Thompson, Mike
Titus, Dina
Tonko, Paul D.
Torres, Norma J.
Tsongas, Niki
Veasey, Marc
Velázquez, Nydia
Visclosky, Peter J.
Walz, Tim
Wasserman Schultz, Debbie
Welch, Peter
Wilson, Frederica S.
Yarmuth, John