What War Powers?

This week the House has cut its session to just Weds-Thurs while the Senate has its standard Monday evening - Thursday schedule.

There's the usual mix in the House of some bills likely to pass with large majorities and and a couple that will probably be party-line or close to.

A moderate number of committee meetings are scheduled across both the House and Senate.

But what will likely be occupying most legislators' minds is the war launched against Iran this weekend.

As we've discussed in past posts, if one is abiding by the constitution, then Congress must be consulted on, and agree to, a war.

Instead, the Trump Administration has launched this war without consulting Congress. Thus, this week we're expecting votes in both chambers on whether to approve the war that's already ongoing or not. The House resolution, according to Punchbowl might pass while the Senate one is unlikely to do so.

Even if one or both of bills made it through both chambers, the President could simply veto any bill limiting his actions knowing that successful veto overrides are extremely rare.

If enough members of Congress support the attack on Iran to preclude a successful veto override, do the members who oppose it have any other options?

Yes they do, although you'd not know it from the comments many legislators are making today. For example, earlier today, Rep. Jeffries (D-NY8) was on CNN suggesting that the administration had chosen to buy weapons at the expense of programs for the US population. But as Aaron Reichlin-Melnick pointed out, "'The administration' didn’t find billions for bombs, Congress gave the U.S. military billions for bombs. Trump is just using them up."

And that's where Congress's real power potentially lies: in appropriations. Our colleagues at the First Branch Forecast discuss this in detail.

The bottom line is that this, like tariffs, is an area where Congress has ceded its own authority to the Executive Branch.

Another area where Republican legislators are looking to cede their authority is with respect to the SAVE America Act. This bill has proven controversial due to the barriers it would create for US citizens who want to register to vote. So, today, Semafor reports that some Senate Republicans are saying they'd like to see the President bypass Congress entirely. That may seem odd on its face; why would someone say out loud on the record that they'd really like to be rendered even more irrelevant? The answer is that this way, if it goes poorly, the president takes the blame and the members can dodge accountability for policies that they support.

With the attack on Iran introducing considerable uncertainty into the week, we'll see you all on Friday to find out what Congress decided to spend their time on.

What War Powers? was originally published on GovTrack.us and is republished with permission.

Amy West is the GovTrack research and communications manager.