Pressure felt at home and abroad
Trump tests Congress’ war powers after strike against Iran’s Soleimani
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s confrontation with Iran is also transforming into another battle between the White House and Congress, testing whether the House and Senate will exert their own authority over U.S. military strategy or cede more war powers to the White House.
As tensions rise at home and abroad, Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California announced the House will vote this week on limiting Trump’s ability to engage Iran militarily after the surprise U.S. airstrike Friday that killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
In a letter late Sunday to House Democrats, Pelosi called the airstrike “provocative and disproportionate” and said it had “endangered our service members, diplomats and others by risking a serious escalation of tensions with Iran.”
A similar resolution was introduced in the Senate and a vote in that chamber is expected to soon follow.
On Monday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, the top
Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called on Trump to declassify “in full” his notification to Congress over the weekend justifying the strikes, saying there is “no legitimate justification” for keeping the information from the public.
Ahead of the attack that killed the Iranian general, the president did not consult with congressional leaders. In the aftermath, he refused to make public any documents or discussions that supported his justification for the airstrikes.
Facing an outcry, Trump scoffed that his tweets announcing military action after the fact should provide adequate updates to Congress, regardless of what is required by law.
Republicans have largely supported Trump’s actions, saying the president was well within his power to take out Iran’s architect of proxy operations against Americans in the Middle East. The U.S. considered Soleimani a terrorist.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said Monday there’s plenty of time for lawmakers to learn more about the president’s reasoning for the attack. He complained that Democrats “rushed to blame our own government before even knowing the facts ... rushed to downplay Soleimani’s evil while presenting our own president as the villain.”
But Schumer said Monday, “It is essential for Congress to put a check on this president.”
Jack Goldsmith, a professor at Harvard Law School, said both parties in Congress have for years gone along with an expansion of presidential war powers, especially with regard to the conflicts in the Middle East.
“In short, our country has — through presidential aggrandizement accompanied by congressional authorization, delegation, and acquiescence — given one person, the president, a sprawling military and enormous discretion to use it in ways that can easily lead to a massive war,“Goldsmith said in an essay in Lawfare, an online newsletter he co-founded. “That is our system: One person decides.”
Past presidents at least signaled a nod to the legislative branch, which has the sole power under the Constitution to declare war, knowing they would need to ask Congress to pay for military operations. It’s one way the founders sought to keep the executive in check.
But Congress has allowed its role to erode since the passage of Authorization for Use of Military Force in 2001, permitting President George W. Bush to fight terrorism after the Sept. 11 attacks, and passage of another AUMF for the invasion of Iraq in 2002.
The fallout from those votes has deeply divided Congress and the nation.
Pelosi said the House will vote on a resolution from Rep. Elissa Slotkin, DMich., a former CIA and Defense Department official, that would require an end to the action against Iran unless Congress votes to authorize it. Similar legislation passed the House last year but failed in the Senate. Sen. Tim Kaine, DVa., is pushing it again this year and plans to force a vote that could come as soon as next week.
“I think this president doesn’t care about Congress,” Kaine told The Associated Press. “But the president is deeply concerned and to the point of insecurity about his own personal popularity. And I think a vote by Congress on a matter like this is ultimately a demonstration — well, what does the American
public think? Should we be in another war in the Middle East?”
Under the War Powers
Act, the White House has 48 hours to notify Congress of such actions. Pelosi said it was “highly unusual” for the information to be entirely classified and is demanding a full briefing for Congress.
Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn on Monday defended Trump, comparing the killing of the Iranian general to President Barack Obama’s decision in 2011 to target al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, even though that raid was tied to the post-2001 war authorizations.
“The president not only has the authority under the Constitution, but the responsibility to defend the nation,“Cornyn said. He also said Soleimani’s death was not an assassination, as some have suggested.
“This was the president of the United States exercising his lawful authorities,” he said.
“I think this president doesn’t care about Congress. But the president is deeply concerned and to the point of insecurity about his own personal popularity.” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va