{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.markey.senate.gov/news/press-releases/markey-merkley-bipartisan-group-of-senators-trump-administration-must-release-all-documents-from-us-saudi-nuclear-deal", "Markey, Merkley, Bipartisan Group of Senators: Trump Administration Must Release All Documents from U.S.-Saudi Nuclear Deal", "2026-09-16", "2026", "2026-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "MA", "Edward J. Markey", "M000133", "www.markey.senate.gov", "markey", "https://www.markey.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "Letter Text (PDF)\n\nWashington (September 16, 2026) \u2013 Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), co-chairs of the bicameral Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control Working Group, today led a bipartisan group of Senators to press the Trump administration to declassify and publicly release the two side letters accompanying the proposed U.S.-Saudi civil nuclear cooperation agreement, referred to as a \u201c123 agreement.\u201d\n\nThe Trump administration recently submitted the 123 agreement to Congress\u2014as is required by law\u2014but while the agreement references the side letters, the letters themselves are classified at the lowest possible level, which is unprecedented. Because the side letters affect the obligations and operation of the underlying agreement, Congress and the public cannot fully assess what the United States and Saudi Arabia have agreed to without seeing them.\n\n\u201cCongress has a statutory responsibility under Section 123 of the Atomic Energy Act to review the proposed nuclear deal, which seeks to facilitate nuclear cooperation with significant implications for U.S. national security interests. Access to the full text is required for the Senate and the public to have a clear understanding of the commitments being made on the nation\u2019s behalf and those being made by Saudi Arabia to the United States,\u201d wrote the bipartisan group of Senators in a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright. \u201cThe side letters affect the obligations and operations of the underlying agreement and cannot be viewed in isolation from it; the President\u2019s own transmission letter to Congress states that the agreement \u201c\u2026was concluded with two accompanying side letters.\u201d Their public release would also allow civil society, independent experts, and other affected stakeholders to scrutinize the deal.\u201d\n\nThey emphasized, \u201cTransparency and open debate are cornerstones of our democracy. Congress and the American public must have a meaningful opportunity to review and debate the key components of the U.S.-Saudi nuclear deal before it potentially enters into force. To that end, we call on you to declassify and release the two side letters without delay.\u201d\n\nJoining Senators Markey and Merkley in signing the letter were Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), John Kennedy (R-La.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Rand Paul (R-K.Y.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).\n\nAs co-chairs of the bicameral Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control Working Group, Markey and Merkley have raised concerns about the proposed details of the U.S.-Saudi nuclear deal.\n\n###", 1, "2026-09-17T09:52:05Z", "2026-09-17T09:53:00Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.markey.senate.gov/news/press-releases/markey-merkley-bipartisan-group-of-senators-trump-administration-must-release-all-documents-from-us-saudi-nuclear-deal"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5982068143785, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}