Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) said Tuesday that he’s pushing for legislation to require an affirmative congressional vote prior to the U.S. reaching any nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia, following a notification from the administration to Congress indicating that it is moving toward a deal that could allow Riyadh to enrich uranium for civilian purposes.

Sherman has been a longtime opponent of nuclear cooperation with Riyadh, warning that a Saudi civilian nuclear program would be the first step toward a nuclear weapon that could one day be turned against Israel. The White House announced plans for a nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia in November during a Washington visit by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Such a deal had previously been coupled with Saudi normalization with Israel, as had advanced weapons sales to the kingdom, but the Trump administration has de-linked those initiatives.

Sherman said during a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday that the administration notified some House Republicans in November of plans to forge a nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia.

The notification procedures, which do not include specific terms of a potential deal, suggest that that Saudi Arabia will not be required to agree to more intrusive International Atomic Energy Agency inspections (known as the “additional protocol” to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty) or “gold standard” safeguards — which would require Saudi Arabia to agree not to enrich or reprocess nuclear material — used for the U.S. nuclear cooperation agreement with the United Arab Emirates.

Those “gold standard” safeguards, which would make it more difficult for Saudi Arabia to repurpose a civilian nuclear program for military purposes, have been a baseline expectation for some lawmakers in earlier rounds of nuclear talks with Saudi Arabia.

The text of the congressional notification was shared with and published by the Arms Control Association earlier this month. While the notification does not specifically state that the agreement will allow for Saudi enrichment, it includes language stating that the deal will employ “additional safeguards and verification measures to the most proliferation-sensitive areas of potential nuclear cooperation … (enrichment, conversion, fuel fabrication, and reprocessing).”

Sherman said that the administration had failed to properly notify congressional Democrats of its plans, as required under law, and that no Democrat on the committee was aware of the report before February.

“We’ve got to look at whether we want a nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia that does not have the safeguards that we negotiated with the UAE,” Sherman said.

He said he’s collecting support for a bill he originally introduced in 2019 with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, then a senator, to require the affirmative support of Congress for any nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia.

“I think Sen. Rubio was wise, perhaps sometimes wiser than Secretary Rubio, and I hope that all members will join me in that effort,” Sherman said.