Connecticut’s federal lawmakers say they fear an “open-ended” war with the potential for U.S. ground troops in Iran after receiving briefings from officials.
In response, they said they plan to support war powers resolutions this week to curb President Donald Trump’s ability to carry out further strikes in the Middle East without congressional approval.
Congress will take up war powers resolutions for the first time since the U.S. began its military campaign against Iran over the weekend. The Senate held a procedural vote late Wednesday afternoon on the bipartisan resolution, which failed to garner enough support to move forward.
The House will take up its own on Thursday. Both are expected to face resistance in the Republican-led chambers.
“The war powers resolution bill scheduled for a vote in the House tomorrow is the best opportunity to restore a constitutional check on this conflict,” Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, said in a statement Wednesday. “After the dissatisfying brief last night, I am even more determined to vote in favor of this measure to avoid another ‘endless war’.”
Democrats and some Republicans are hoping to reassert their authority since the Constitution grants the legislative branch the ability to “declare war.” But war powers resolutions have been largely unsuccessful. Only one overcame a presidential veto during the Vietnam War era.
The War Powers Act of 1973 requires a president to notify Congress within 48 hours of military action if there is no declaration of war, and it limits military deployment to 60 days — with a 30-day withdrawal — unless Congress authorizes the use of force. A war powers resolution would obligate the president to seek approval from Congress on further military action in the region.
Even if it got through the House and Senate, Trump can veto the measure. Two-thirds majorities are required from both chambers to override a presidential veto.
In addition to votes on the resolutions, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., reiterated his call for a vote on a separate proposal, the Authorization for Use of Military Force, or an AUMF, in Iran.
“We shouldn’t be proceeding to legislation, providing votes to proceed to legislation, until they put an authorization for military force on the floor of the United States Senate,” Murphy said Tuesday night. “It’s a really difficult vote, much more difficult than a war powers vote, for senators to go on the record and proactively say they want war with Iran. If that vote comes before the Senate, I don’t think it can pass.”
This week’s votes on the war powers resolutions come after officials briefed all members of Congress on Iran.
Because of his perch on the House Intelligence Committee, U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-4th District, has been part of multiple briefings and calls both before and after the weekend strikes. He’s a member of what’s known as the “Gang of Eight” due to his role as ranking member, and he gets some of the earliest intelligence information in Congress.
One of those calls on Monday night included U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3rd District. As the ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee who approves government funding, DeLauro asked officials twice about how much a war would cost, according to Himes.
“We got no answers other than, ‘We’ll get back to you,'” Himes said.
Like others in the delegation, Himes said he still doesn’t know the path forward once the administration’s goal are met in what will be a much larger operation than Trump’s initial strike last summer to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities or the capture of Venezuela’s leader earlier this year. Six service members have so far died in Iranian strikes against U.S. bases and installations in the Middle East.
Himes said he’s confounded by presidents who keep getting involved in Middle East conflicts, especially after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. His own election to Congress in 2008 is a byproduct of that, he argued.
“I’m sitting here in Congress because Middle East wars are a very bad idea, and here we are in one, not congressionally authorized,” Himes said in a Wednesday interview. “And it just makes me wonder what is it about the Middle East that draws every president into the region to disastrously end their own presidencies.”
Emerging from the Senate briefing early Tuesday evening, Connecticut senators said they still didn’t get answers on the timeline and costs of a war. Murphy told reporters it was conveyed to him that “this is an open-ended operation that hasn’t even really started in earnest yet.” Trump told the New York Post in a Monday interview he wasn’t ruling out U.S. boots on the ground, but added the caveat “if they were necessary.”
“I am more fearful than ever after this briefing that we may be putting boots on the ground and that troops from the United States might be necessary to accomplish objectives that the administration seems to have,” U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said Tuesday. He has said he’ll oppose American ground troops in Iran.
“I think the administration owes it to the American people to have briefings not just for members of Congress but for the American public. Nothing here should have been classified,” Blumenthal said.
There has also been confusion over whether an attack by Iran was imminent and conflicting narratives about why America got involved in a joint operation with Israel.
Following his Tuesday briefing with all senators, Secretary of State Marco Rubio laid out what the administration hopes to achieve: destroying Iran’s missiles and missile launchers, its nuclear infrastructure and its Navy. He said it’s his understanding that meeting those three goals are “on or ahead of schedule.”
“We have every confidence in the world that these objectives will be achieved. You’re really going to begin to perceive a change in scope,” Rubio told reporters Tuesday night. “We’re well on our way of meeting them. It will not be easy. There will be a price to pay for it. But that is a much lower price to pay than having nuclear-armed Iran.”
Rubio said Congress can proceed with its war power votes, but argued the administration has complied with the War Powers Act while also calling it “unconstitutional.” Republican leadership have echoed similar sentiments about the decades-old law, and believe Trump is well within his authority to carry out strikes beyond the 60-day time frame.
“I think the president has the authority that he needs to conduct the activities, the operations that are currently underway there,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters. “There’s a lot of controversy around, questions around the War Powers Act, but I think the president is acting in the best interests of the nation and our national security interests by ensuring that he’s protecting Americans and American bases and installations in the region as well as those of our allies.”
With this week’s votes on Iran, Himes said he expects “Republicans are going to completely abnegate on their constitutional responsibility to be part of this decision that could involve the lives of hundreds of Americans and has already ended the lives of six.”
Once the administration meets its goals, what remains unclear for Himes is a timeframe for the conflict and an end goal. He said it leaves the U.S. with an “ugly fork in the road.”
“When those three objectives are reached, then what? Are we going to abandon the people of Iran or are we going to do regime changes?” Himes said. “Neither of those paths are particularly attractive, which is, by the way, why Congress should be consulted and authorized.”
The Connecticut Mirror/Connecticut Public Radio federal policy reporter position is made possible, in part, by funding from the Robert and Margaret Patricelli Family Foundation.
This story was originally published by the Connecticut Mirror.
