Washington, DC -- Representative Gregory W. Meeks, Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, issued a statement after the House of Representatives failed to pass the Massie-Khanna Iran War Powers Resolution (WPR). The Ranking Member said he would force a vote on his own Iran War Powers Resolution introduced last year if President Trump’s war of choice continues past 60 days, the threshold where the War Powers Act compels the president to come to Congress for authorization:
"Today’s vote should have been a no-brainer: the Constitution grants Congress, not the president, the power to declare war. Without such authorization, no president should be able to unilaterally send our men and women in uniform into harm’s way. The president’s objectives and justifications for this war continue to shift, and there is no clear endgame or estimate of what it will cost American taxpayers. No one disagrees that the Iranian regime is brutal, but Congress’s constitutional authority over matters of war and peace is also crystal clear. Our constituents expect us to do our job and take hard votes, especially when American lives are at stake.
“I plan to force a vote on the Iran War Powers Resolution I introduced last year if hostilities have not ended within 60 days. Members who voted against today’s WPR on the assumption that Trump’s war will be swift or limited will not have that excuse once we’ve entered the third month of open-ended hostilities.”
"Today’s vote should have been a no-brainer: the Constitution grants Congress, not the president, the power to declare war. Without such authorization, no president should be able to unilaterally send our men and women in uniform into harm’s way. The president’s objectives and justifications for this war continue to shift, and there is no clear endgame or estimate of what it will cost American taxpayers. No one disagrees that the Iranian regime is brutal, but Congress’s constitutional authority over matters of war and peace is also crystal clear. Our constituents expect us to do our job and take hard votes, especially when American lives are at stake.
“I plan to force a vote on the Iran War Powers Resolution I introduced last year if hostilities have not ended within 60 days. Members who voted against today’s WPR on the assumption that Trump’s war will be swift or limited will not have that excuse once we’ve entered the third month of open-ended hostilities.”