The only physicist in Congress still hasn’t decided whether or not to oppose the Iran nuclear deal, The Hill reported on Sunday, August 23rd, 2015.
Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.) holds a doctorate in physics from Harvard University and spent 22 years working at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois, during which time he helped to discover the world’s heaviest elementary particle: the top quark.
With the Iranian nuclear agreement deal now before Congress, Foster still has a few lingering questions, he told The Hill, and wants to refrain from weighing in too quickly.
“I’m still undecided,” Foster said in an interview on Friday. “As the last Ph.D. scientist in Congress, I sort of feel a special responsibility to really carefully study the technical aspects of the agreement.”
“My first concern is that there not be a grievous technical flaw. It does no one any good if we approve a deal and then there’s a loophole that the Iranians drive a truck through,” he added.
Scrutiny over the Iran deal has been pressing hard on lawmakers in both parties this summer, ahead of a mid-September vote that is guaranteed to be among the most consequential of their political careers.
But Foster has a singular mastery of the technical components of the deal on Capitol Hill, and his experience wrangling with the issues underscores the complex science involved in the landmark accord.
Though he declined to say if he was leaning one way or the other, Foster’s reluctance to endorse the deal as of yet appeared to be based more out of a desire to do robust double-checking of all of the administration’s points Before Congress went on the summer recess this month, Foster’s colleagues’ eyes would occasionally gloss over when he and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz — whom Foster has known for roughly two decades — got into tête-à-têtes about the intricacies of the deal during closed-door briefings.
”They can have a conversation that gets a little wonky,” Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) said at the time.
Multiple colleagues on Capitol Hill have sought him out because of his expertise, Foster said, to translate some of the deal’s arcane scientific jargon into plain English.
“There’s part of this analysis that is technical and part of it that is diplomatic and psychological,” he said.
“The technical analysis I can help other members with,” he added. “The diplomatic analysis, the estimate that every member has to make of what the world looks like if we vote this agreement down or vote for it to proceed, that’s something that every member has to answer for himself or herself.”
House Democrats are considered crucial for President Obama in the fight over the Iran deal. With Republicans expected to unite in opposition to the deal, the White House can afford to lose no more than 43 Democrats in the House to uphold Obama’s veto of a bill to kill it, should it come to that.
Still, there is a long road to climb. Just 60 of the 146 Democrats needed to sustain a veto have pledged to vote in favor of the deal. A dozen have promised to oppose it.
Foster told The Hill that he is hoping to finalize his decision within the next two weeks, after discussions with experts at Argonne National Laboratory, among others.
The lingering questions, he said, center on whether or not Iran truly will be one year away from being able to develop a nuclear weapon if it decided to abandon the deal — as the administration has claimed — as well as assurances about international monitoring efforts.