On April 18th, 2014, President Obama signed into law Senator Ted Cruz's bill (S.2195), which amends the Foreign Relations Authorization Act to prohibit entry to the United States to anyone who has engaged in espionage or terrorist activities against the U.S. or its allies. This bill was proposed by Senator Cruz in response to Iran's nomination of Hamid Aboutalebi as its UN ambassador, a man who was involved in the 1979 American hostage incident in Tehran.
The summary of the bill: "Amends the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1990 and 1991 to direct the President to deny U.S. admission to any representative of the United Nations (U.N.) who: (1) has been found to have been engaged in espionage activities or a terrorist activity against the United States or its allies; and (2) may pose a threat to U.S. national security interests."
President Obama's move was begrudging. The State Department rendered a decision barring admission to Aboutalebi only after Senator Cruz's bill gained strong and rapid partisan Congressional support. And Obama signed the bill only with the qualification that: "'curtailing by statute my constitutional discretion to receive or reject ambassadors is neither a permissible nor a practical solution.' I shall therefore continue to treat section 407, as originally enacted and as amended by S. 2195, as advisory in circumstances in which it would interfere with the exercise of this discretion." President Obama prefaced his remarks by saying he was just quoting from and simply following President George H.W. Bush. Evidently, he found it hard to stomach that the first-time Senator had acted more decisively and quickly to counter this latest Iranian treachery than the President of the United States.