Will Sanctions Fervour Survive This Congress?
Barbara D. Linney, partner at Blank Rome, was quoted in the article "Will Sanctions Fervour Survive This Congress?" by Rajesh Joshi in the March 15, 2012 edition of Lloyd's List. www.lloydslist.com.
Full article below.
Legislative efforts to develop a new set of Iranian sanctions are moving at an impressive pace, but it remains to be seen if the U.S. presidential election in November and the expiry of the current Congress in January next year slow this freight train down.
So far, President Barack Obama and Congress have vied to outdo one another. Congress last autumn sought to amend the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010, aiming to expand both the scope of sanctionable activity and the types of sanctions. (Cisada itself is an amendment of the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996, the original Iran sanctions legislation.)
Mr. Obama countered with an executive order in November, which broadened sanctions to cover Iran’s petroleum and petrochemical industries.
Since then, a raft of new draft Bills have been introduced. However, for a Bill to become law, each chamber of Congress must pass its own version, after which the two versions must be fused into a final version before it becomes law. Draft Bills that remain stuck in this machinery lapse with each outgoing Congress every two years.
The 2010 experience with Deepwater Horizon offers a cautionary example. Dozens of oil spill bills were introduced that summer. However, mid-term elections intervened in November.
By the time the new Congress took office in January 2011, the political balance of power had shifted, the oil had stopped leaking, and other items such as national debt had captured politicians’ imagination. The oil spill mania quietly died.
Will the current enthusiasm for Iran-related sanctions survive this Congress?
Blank Rome partner Barbara Linney, a specialist on U.S. and international sanctions, agrees that the expiry of the current Congress is a factor that could influence the shelf life of the current anti-Iran initiatives.
“However, the impact of Iran’s perceived actions in the coming months cannot be discounted,” Ms Linney cautions. “Recall that the original legislation [the Iran Sanctions Act] was passed in an election year. Competing Bills were headed for conference as the 1996 summer recess approached. Many thought they would die there, but the perceived terrorist threat arising from the crash of TWA Flight 800 motivated Congress to pull together.
“The Iran and Libya Sanctions Act of 1996 became law on August 5, 1996, thereby proving that one can never assume that an election year Congress cannot leave a legacy.”
Raymond Burke Jr, a veteran New York lawyer and Iran expert, agrees. “Even if proposed Bills are not enacted before the present Congress adjourns, it would be difficult to imagine many of them not reappearing, in some form, before a subsequent Congress,” Mr. Burke says.
“Today’s political consensus identifying Iran as the leading state sponsor of international terrorism is pervasive, and will continue to push Congress to tighten the web of sanctions.”