The U.S.-Israeli military offensive against Iran is stoking a heated fight on Capitol Hill over who has the power to take the country to war while intensifying the battle over Homeland Security Department funding.
Democrats are renewing their push for a war powers vote, arguing that President Trump went too far by launching Operation Epic Fury without congressional approval.
For the most part, Republicans are supporting the president, as is Sen. John Fetterman, Pennsylvania Democrat. They say the War Powers Resolution of 1973 gives Mr. Trump up to 60 days to act before seeking congressional approval.
Sen. Tim Kaine, Virginia Democrat, isn’t buying it.
Mr. Kaine has lined up a war powers vote this week, arguing that the Constitution outranks any statute and that Mr. Trump failed to notify most lawmakers before proceeding.
“This is an illegal war,” Mr. Kaine, a senior member of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, said on “Fox News Sunday.” “The Constitution says no declaration of war without Congress. The president has called this a war against Iran.”
SEE ALSO: Sen. John Fetterman stands with Trump after strike on Iran, breaks with fellow Democrats
Sen. David McCormick, a Pennsylvania Republican, member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and combat veteran, said Mr. Trump acted “completely within his constitutional authority” and cast Democrats as partisan hypocrites.
“For 50 years, Democratic presidents and Republican presidents have been making this claim,” Mr. McCormick said on “Fox News Sunday.” “When President Obama took military action in Libya, the very same argument was made.”
Mr. Fetterman echoed Republicans’ argument that Iran posed an immediate and serious threat and that Mr. Trump was on firm legal ground.
“I don’t understand why we can’t just say, ‘Thank God,’” he said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
He argued that Mr. Trump was simply the one leader willing to ensure Iran never obtained a nuclear weapon.
The most notable Republican critics have been Sen. Rand Paul and Rep. Thomas Massie. The libertarian-leaning Kentucky Republicans insist the strikes are unconstitutional.
SEE ALSO: Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton says GOP voters back Trump decision to strike Iran
“As with all war, my first and purest instinct is to wish American soldiers safety and success in their mission,” Mr. Paul posted on social media. “But my oath of office is to the Constitution, so with studied care, I must oppose another presidential war.”
Meanwhile, Republicans argued that the strikes on Iran make funding the Homeland Security Department even more urgent. They warn that the department’s shutdown is leaving the country vulnerable to counterattacks.
The funding lapse, which began Feb. 14, was sparked by Democratic anger over the aggressive tactics of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in pursuing illegal immigrants, including the deaths of two U.S. citizen protesters who were killed while trying to interfere with ICE efforts in Minnesota.
Democrats are refusing to fund the department unless it agrees to a list of demands that Republicans say will cripple immigration enforcement.
Republicans noted that Mr. Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act designated tens of billions of dollars for ICE and Customs and Border Protection, meaning the shutdown affects mostly other agencies, several of which have national security duties.
Homeland Security Department agencies such as the Coast Guard, the Transportation Security Administration, the Secret Service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and offices dealing with cybersecurity and the security of federal buildings have nothing to do with immigration enforcement.
“The last thing we should be doing right now is defunding the Department of Homeland Security, which is exactly what the Democrats have done,” Sen. Bill Hagerty, Tennessee Republican, said on “The Sunday Briefing” program on Fox News.
“We need to get back to fully funding that and making certain that our homeland is safe and secure,” he said.
Sen. Christopher Murphy, Connecticut Democrat, was unmoved.
“So, the Republicans are saying that, because they launched an illegal, disastrous war in Iran, we should give them permission to continue using ICE to murder American citizens?” he said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
“No,” he said. “We need to stand up for the American citizens that ICE is murdering, the kids that they are terrorizing. They should stop this illegal war, and they should stop ICE from terrorizing our communities.”
