Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) will place a hold on all nominations for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, accusing the office of being in violation of the law over its failure to deliver its assessment to Congress on the status of Iran’s nuclear program. 

Graham sent a letter to Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, on Wednesday notifying her that he planned to work with colleagues to condition funding to ODNI in the next appropriations bill and put holds on all nominations because the office had missed two Section 5593 report deadlines in the past year and failed to submit Section 7413 assessments, as required by law. 

Graham is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which makes him a key player in the appropriations process in the upper chamber. He is also the author of the law that he claims is being skirted. 

“I am formally notifying you that I plan to hold all ODNI affiliated nominations and will work with my colleagues to condition ODNI headquarters funding in the next appropriations bill upon submission of these assessments. As the author of these two provisions designed to protect the national security interests of the United States, I find it unconscionable that the requirements to submit the assessments under Section 5593 and Section 7413 are being ignored,” Graham wrote in the letter. 

The South Carolina senator also noted that the latest report from the International Atomic Energy Agency estimates that Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium is only a “small technical step away” from reaching weapons-grade purity necessary to create a nuclear weapon. 

Graham goes on to allege that Haines offered to speak with him next week “after [she] disregarded my six previous requests” for the assessments. 

Speaking to Jewish Insider about the letter on Thursday, Graham said that he decided to move forward on the holds following multiple failed attempts to get answers from Haines and her office. 

“I’ve been asking for this, for an engagement with the DNI for over a month. They’re a year behind on the report, and they keep saying, ‘Well, we’ll talk to you next week, then it was next month.’ Well, I’m tired of that. This report is designed to keep us apprised of what the Iranians are doing on the nuclear front,” Graham said. 

Section 5593, which Graham authored and went into law in 2022, requires the ODNI to report to Congress every 180 days about Iran’s uranium enrichment and nuclear weapons development activities.