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Members of Congress begin to return from their year-end holiday
recess on Monday, and Democrats said they will attempt quickly
to pass legislation to bar him - or any future U.S.
commander-in-chief - from conducting a campaign against Iran
without obtaining Congress' approval.
Late on Sunday, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi
said the Democratic-led chamber would introduce and vote this
week on a War Powers Resolution that would force Trump to stop
military action against Iran within 30 days.
But with Trump's fellow Republicans in control of the Senate and
showing little inclination to break from their party's leader,
there is scant expectation any legislation could win enough
support to become law.
Longtime foes Tehran and Washington have been in a war of words
since Friday, when Qassem Soleimani was killed in a U.S. drone
strike at Baghdad airport. The attack stoked concerns about
all-out war if Tehran retaliates.
On Sunday, Trump doubled down on his threats to target Iran for
any retaliatory attacks and Iran said it was stepping back from
commitments to a 2015 nuclear deal with six major powers.
Trump broke precedent by failing to inform congressional leaders
before the attack on Soleimani, and by making classified his
formal notification to Congress of the attack on Saturday.
Under the U.S. War Powers Act, the president must inform
Congress within 48 hours of introducing military forces into
armed conflict abroad. Those notifications normally detail the
justification for the intervention.
The act also bars a president from committing U.S. armed forces
from any foreign action lasting more than 60 days without
Congress' approval.
By making the War Powers notification classified, Trump limited
lawmakers' ability to talk about it, and sidestepped the law's
goal of keeping Americans informed about military action, some
legal experts said.
"It may be in formal compliance with the war powers resolution,
but it is inconsistent with the general goal of providing
transparency and information to the American people," said Oona
Hathaway, a professor at Yale University's law school.
Trump took to Twitter on Sunday to say his posts would serve as
notification to Congress that the country "will quickly & fully
strike back" if Iran strikes any U.S. person or target, and that
he had no legal requirement to inform Congress.
POWER OF THE PURSE
Legal experts disagreed, saying the war powers law required a
formal report to Congress, and did not allow such a blanket
clearance ahead of time, especially not via social media.
The War Powers Act was passed in 1973, largely in response to
President Richard Nixon's secret bombing of Cambodia.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Bob Menendez,
ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,
urged Trump to declassify the notification.
"An entirely classified notification is simply not appropriate
in a democratic society, and there appears to be no legitimate
justification for classifying this notification," they wrote in
a letter to Trump.
Congress' main power over the president is its control of
federal spending, and the Democratic-controlled House could pass
legislation that would bar Trump from spending any taxpayer
dollars on a conflict with Iran.
However, Republicans removed a similar measure from the annual
National Defense Authorization Act last year before it was
passed with overwhelming support from both parties and signed
into law by Trump last month.
Congress can also put pressure on a president by refusing to
pass bills he supports, and the Senate could block his nominees.
But Senate Republicans have shown little appetite for opposing
Trump.
"The Republicans control the Senate, and they're not asking
questions," said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms
Control Association.
The Democratic-led House impeachment of Trump has led his party
to rally more closely around him, further complicating efforts
to rein him in on Iran.
Administration officials are expected to brief Congress on Iran
this week. Lawmakers said they want a detailed explanation of
the administration's justification for the strike against
Soleimani, as well as future plans.
Representative Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat who served as a
Department of Defense official and at the CIA, noted that past
administrations had decided not to go after Soleimani after
determining it could lead to a protracted conflict.
"The Iranian government has vowed to retaliate and avenge
Soleimani’s death, and could do so in any number of ways," she
said on Twitter.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Additional reporting by Susan
Cornwell; Editing by Robert Birsel)
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