The Trump administration has formally submitted a 30-year nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia to Congress — a deal that could let the kingdom enrich its own uranium while American energy infrastructure rots and working families bleed cash at the pump.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Saudi energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman signed the accord last month as part of a broader civilian nuclear package. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the agreement would give U.S. companies a central role in building Saudi Arabia's nuclear infrastructure while largely shutting out foreign competitors. Follow the money: American firms stand to profit, Saudi Arabia gets enrichment capability, and the American public assumes the risk.
The mechanism itself should alarm anyone who believes Congress exists to check executive power. Under Section 123 of the Atomic Energy Act, the deal enters a 90-day review period. It does not require an affirmative vote in either chamber. Unless Congress passes a joint resolution of rejection, the agreement takes effect automatically. That is not oversight — that is a rubber stamp with a timer.
Democratic Sens. Edward Markey and Jeff Merkley, along with Reps. John Garamendi and Donald Beyer, have called the deal "the starting gun for a Middle East nuclear arms race." They argue the agreement should require Saudi Arabia to forgo weapons-grade uranium production and accept the International Atomic Energy Agency's most stringent inspections. It does neither.
The lawmakers also flagged the glaring contradiction: the Trump administration is waging war with Iran over its nuclear ambitions while negotiating enrichment rights for Iran's chief regional rival. "That contradiction doesn't make America stronger," they wrote. "It makes American policy impossible to take seriously."
This deal does not exist in a vacuum. The Middle East commitment machine runs in every direction. Europe Says reports that Israel alone has received roughly $25 billion in U.S. military aid since October 2023 — even as American citizens detained by Israeli forces languish without charge. More than 40 members of Congress have pressed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to secure the release of Sama Safi, a 20-year-old Palestinian American student detained in a predawn West Bank raid in June, held without charge while her chronic medical condition goes untreated. The State Department declined to comment. Every dollar shipped overseas is a dollar not spent at home.
The White House frames the Saudi deal as deepening ties with a strategic partner at a moment when the Iran conflict has strained the relationship. But handing enrichment technology to a kingdom with no particular track record of following rules it finds inconvenient is not a strategy — it is a bet with American security as the stake.
What happens when Riyadh decides it needs more than civilian reactors? By then, U.S. companies will be locked into 30 years of contracts, Congress will have signed off by silence, and the enrichment know-how will already have transferred. The founders gave the Senate treaty power for a reason. This end-run around it — automatic passage unless blocked — tells you everything about how seriously Washington takes its own constitutional obligations when foreign money is on the table.
