President Donald Trump’s confrontation with Iran is posing a gut check for Congress, brazenly 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 will hold House votes this week to limit Trump’s ability to engage Iran militarily after the surprise U.S. airstrike that killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani. A Senate vote is expected to soon follow.
Yet Congress has shown time and again it is unable to exert its ability to authorize — or halt — the use of military force. With their inaction, lawmakers have begrudgingly allowed the commander in chief to all but disregard Congress.
“I think this president has pushed this to the limit with action that has a huge, escalating effect,” said Scott Anderson, a former attorney in the State Department’s legal office and former legal adviser for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. “Maybe this will push Congress to make it a priority. … Anything short of legislative action doesn’t mean anything.”
The showdown between the White House and Capitol Hill provides the latest example of how Trump’s willingness to break the norms in Washington is setting new standards in governance.
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 his justification for the airstrikes.
Facing an outcry, Trump scoffed that his tweets 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 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.″
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