House and Senate Democrats are planning to force votes on war powers resolutions that would require President Trump to get approval from Congress before engaging in hostilities with Iran.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York and six other Democratic Party and committee leaders issued a joint statement Thursday announcing their plans to compel a vote on the Iran war powers resolution “as soon as Congress reconvenes next week.”
“This legislation would require the President to come to Congress to make the case for using military force against Iran,” the Democrats said. “The Iranian regime is brutal and destabilizing, seen most recently in the killing of thousands of protestors. However, undertaking a war of choice in the Middle East, without a full understanding of all the attendant risks to our servicemembers and to escalation, is reckless.”
In the Senate, Tim Kaine, Virginia Democrat, has said he is also planning to force a vote on an Iran war powers resolution, likely next week.
“We should not send our sons and daughters into another war in the Middle East,” the senator said.
The Democrats’ plans to force votes on the matter come as the U.S. is engaged in negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program. Representatives for the countries are meeting in Geneva on Thursday.
The U.S. has gathered a massive fleet of aircraft and warships in the Mideast in preparation for a potential attack on Iran should negotiations not bear fruit.
“My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy,” Mr. Trump said in his State of the Union address Tuesday night. “But one thing is certain: I will never allow the world’s No. 1 sponsor of terror, which they are by far, to have a nuclear weapon. Can’t let that happen.”
The president said he warned Iran after the U.S. “obliterated Iran’s nuclear weapons program” with last summer’s Operation Midnight Hammer bombings not to make attempts to rebuild it — “yet they continue.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefed top congressional leaders on Iran this week.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, said the issues discussed during the classified briefing were “very serious” and the Trump administration “should come clean and tell the American people exactly what the goal is in Iran.”
“I’ve always said that confronting Iran and halting its nuclear ambitions requires a strategy, clarity, transparency,” Mr. Schumer said. “But thus far, we’re getting none of that from the administration.”
Even some Republicans are demanding more transparency.
“I have asked for a classified briefing defining the mission in Iran. In the absence of new information, I will support the War Powers resolution in the House next week,” Ohio GOP Rep. Warren Davidson posted on social media. “War requires Congressional authorization. There are actions short of war, but no case has been made.”
Mr. Kaine said the war powers votes can change behavior, as was the case when he won enough GOP backing earlier this year to advance a resolution to block Mr. Trump from taking further military action in Venezuela without congressional approval.
The Trump administration moved enough Republicans back to its side to defeat the measure, but it required some assurances that Congress would be consulted if the administration were to plan future military strikes in Venezuela.
“What we did in [regard to] Venezuela made the president, by his own admission, cancel a second strike, and it also forced him to have public hearings and send Rubio up to explain what the hell was going on,” Mr. Kaine said.
The senator said some of his constituents from Virginia are serving on the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier that has been back and forth between the Middle East and Latin America.
“It will break the record as the longest carrier deployment ever. These sailors haven’t seen their families,” Mr. Kaine said. “These guys are not the palace guard for Trump to just push them all around the world whenever he wants.”
