The Senate version of the bill aiming to repeal a longstanding US ban on crude oil exports passed another stage on Thursday, getting through the Senate banking committee, according to Reuters.
However the progress of the legislation is in doubt because of the addition of an amendment by a Republican Senator which would demand Iran compensate American victims of alleged Iran-backed terror attacks.
The provision will probably alienate Democratic Senators from supporting it.
Its passage was already in doubt after the White House indicated it would exercise its veto should the bill reach the president’s desk but that was relating to other matters.
Now the Iran terror provision, added by Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, looks likely to scupper chances of bipartisan support for the bill when it goes to the full chamber.
The US oil export ban was instituted in the 1970s in reaction to the Middle East-led oil crisis of that era.
