Sputnik- Negotiators in the US Congress killed an amendment to the 2017 defense budget submitted by Representative Mike Pompeo, recently nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to head the Central Intelligence Agency, that would have required the Department of Defense to monitor Russia-Iran activities, a legislative report showed.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) � The House of�Representatives adopted a measure containing �a provision that would require a report on�cooperation between�Iran and the Russian Federation," a passage in�the National Defense Authorization Act conference report stated. "The Senate bill contained no similar provision, the House recedes."

Conference reports are issued after�negotiators in�Congress� two chambers, the House and Senate, have resolved differences in�their respective versions of�legislation, and �receding� means one chamber effectively withdraws a change that the other had opposed.

Pompeo�s amendment was included in�the version of�the defense legislation that the House passed in�May. At the time, the congressman said his proposal would help US officials �understand how the increasing ties between�Iran and Russia on�issues including space, naval cooperation, and Hezbollah affect US national security.�

If the amendment had been kept, the US defense secretary and the secretary of�state would have had to�provide joint briefings to�key congressional committees about�Russian-Iranian interests in�Latin America; intelligence-sharing by�the two countries and Syria; and Russian cooperation with�Hezbollah in�Syria, Lebanon and Iraq.