WASHINGTON — The Republican leader of the U.S. Senate cleared the way on Tuesday for a vote on a bill that would give Congress the power to review an international nuclear agreement with Iran, ending debate over efforts to use the measure to impose more conditions on Tehran.
Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he had filed a "cloture" motion to begin the process of formally ending debate. Both Democrats and Republicans said they expected the Iran Nuclear Review Act would pass with strong support in the vote scheduled for Thursday.
"If we get to the final vote without additional blowups between now and then, I think it's going to be overwhelmingly supportive," Senator Bob Corker, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, and author of the bill, told reporters.
A dispute among Republican senators over amendments last week had left Senate and foreign relations committee leaders scrambling for a way to move forward with the legislation.
At least 67 amendments to the bill had been offered by Tuesday, all by Republicans. Many were considered "poison pills," which would have killed the bill by alienating too many Democrats for it to pass or, if it did pass, provoking a veto by Democratic President Barack Obama.
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