WASHINGTON, June 26 \u2014 This week both the Republican-led US House of Representatives and US Senate passed a resolution directing President Donald Trump to withdraw US forces from \u200chostilities with Iran, reflecting growing concern among members of his party about the conflict that began on February 28.<\/p>\n
The US Senate passed the War Powers concurrent resolution on Tuesday directing President Trump to halt US military activity against Iran, weeks after the measure was approved by the House.<\/p>\n
It is the first time such a resolution has passed both chambers \u200cof Congress.<\/p>\n
This is a look at the US war powers law and what might happen next.<\/p>\n
What is the war powers resolution?<\/p>\n
Congress passed the War Powers Resolution law, more commonly known as the War Powers Act, in 1973 as a check on presidential power in response to the unpopular Vietnam War. The Act requires the president to inform Congress within 48 hours of hostilities and says military action begun without Congress\u2019 approval must be terminated within 60 days, unless there is an emergency.<\/p>\n
With Iran, the 60-day deadline was May 1, which Trump addressed by declaring that the hostilities had been \u201cterminated\u201d by a ceasefire, despite continuing attacks and a blockade of Iranian ports. Legal experts said that argument might not survive judicial scrutiny.<\/p>\n
The 1973 law also established procedures for Congress to vote on war powers resolutions to end hostilities not authorized by lawmakers. These resolutions are privileged, meaning they can be brought up for votes even without the approval of House of Representatives and Senate leaders.<\/p>\n
What hurdles do resolutions face?<\/p>\n
Opponents of the concurrent resolution \u2014 defined as measures passed by both the \u200cHouse and Senate reflecting the sentiments of both chambers \u2014 say it does not have the force of law because it will not be sent to the \u2060White House for Trump to sign or veto.<\/p>\n
However, legal experts said the \u2060issue is not settled law. No concurrent resolution under the 1973 war powers law had passed since the \u2060law was enacted.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe executive branch will likely \u2060ignore it on constitutional grounds, and it\u2019s \u2060not clear who might have standing to sue to enforce it,\u201d said Scott Anderson, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and senior editor of the online legal publication Lawfare, although he added that he expected someone would.<\/p>\n
Democratic Representative Gregory Meeks of New York, who filed the House resolution, said his view is that \u2060the concurrent resolution is legally binding and said he would explore every legal avenue to ensure Trump complies with the will of Congress.<\/p>\n
So why bother?<\/p>\n
Sponsors of the war powers resolutions say the US Constitution gives only Congress, not the president, the power to authorise the use of military force, although there is significant precedent for presidents ordering short-term operations to counter an immediate threat.<\/p>\n
And even though multiple resolutions have been filed \u2014\u00a0and failed \u2014 in the Senate and House since the US and Israel began firing on Iran, backers say the close votes send an important signal that lawmakers are trying to take back their \u2060power to declare war and rein in Trump\u2019s White House.<\/p>\n
Senate Republicans narrowly blocked a resolution as recently as late Wednesday night, as two party members switched their votes after Trump berated them at an angry lunch meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe war powers resolution that was passed by \u2060the House sends a strong signal to the president that lawmakers across the aisle think that this war has gone on for too long and violates the war \u2060powers resolution as \u2060well as the Constitution,\u201d said Katherine Yon Ebright, a war powers expert at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University.<\/p>\n
Opponents call the resolutions political posturing that emboldens US enemies and improperly impinges on the president\u2019s powers as commander in chief.<\/p>\n
What do voters think?<\/p>\n
The unpopular Iran war could affect elections in November that will determine whether Trump\u2019s Republicans \u200cretain control of Congress. A Reuters\/Ipsos poll released this week showed that just one in four Americans believe the war is worth its costs and a majority worry that a truce with Tehran is unlikely to last.<\/p>\n
The poll also showed the war weighing heavily on Trump\u2019s popularity, with his approval rating dropping to 34 per cent. \u2014 Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON, June 26 \u2014 This week both the Republican-led US House of Representatives and US Senate passed a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[235496,42,145699,43,12521,40,38,41,39,100751,17904,235495],"class_list":["post-513638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-american-public-opinion","tag-headlines","tag-iran-conflict","tag-news","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-us-house-of-representatives","tag-us-senate","tag-war-powers-resolution"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}