Jeffries Readies War Powers Resolution as Pentagon Asks for $200 Billion — and Nobody Voted for Any of It

The Constitutional Shell Game

Trump's lawyers have a clever argument: the 1973 War Powers Resolution itself is arguably unconstitutional, because Congress can't constrain the commander-in-chief's authority to protect American interests. Courts have never definitively settled this. Previous presidents — from Reagan to Obama to Biden — have used the same ambiguity to launch military actions without formal Congressional approval. But there's a difference between ambiguity and contempt. The Iran campaign involves coordinated airstrikes, naval deployments, and what military briefings now describe as "sustained combat operations." Calling it something other than a war to avoid the legal framework for wars isn't a sophisticated legal argument — it's a semantic trick. [1] Jeffries' War Powers Resolution would force the House to vote on whether this meets the threshold. That vote would put every Republican on record. Do they believe Congress has war-making authority, or do they believe the president can commit American forces indefinitely to any conflict he chooses to label something else? [2]

We have a constitutional duty to assert Congressional authority over matters of war and peace. The American people deserve a voice through their elected representatives.

— House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries

The $23 Billion Side Deal

Here's the part that's gotten less attention: while asking Congress to write a $200 billion check for the war it wasn't consulted about, the Trump administration is simultaneously pushing $23 billion in arms sales to UAE, Kuwait, and Jordan — also without Congressional approval. [1] Arms sales of this scale typically require Congressional notification under the Arms Export Control Act. The administration appears to be testing how much it can move through executive action before anyone pushes back hard enough to matter. This isn't just about Iran. It's about whether Congress retains any meaningful role in foreign policy and military affairs, or whether that branch of government has effectively ceded its war-making authority to whoever happens to be in the Oval Office. An AP-NORC poll published this week shows 59% of Americans think military action against Iran is excessive. [3] That's a majority. The branch of government designed to represent that majority has been cut out of the conversation entirely.

The Gas Price Factor

Brent crude crossed $100 a barrel last week. Gas prices in swing states — Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania — are up more than 40 cents per gallon since the Iran campaign began. Working families are paying more to drive to jobs that are already paying less in real terms, and the administration's response has essentially been: this is the price of security. [3] Except nobody asked working families whether they wanted to pay that price. Nobody asked them whether they wanted a war with Iran at all. The president decided, the planes flew, and now the gas station is sending the bill.

What the War Powers Vote Would Actually Do

Let's be honest: Jeffries' War Powers Resolution will not pass the House. Republicans control the chamber, and most of them have decided that supporting the war is safer than defending the Constitution's war clause. A handful — the Boebert-Massie libertarian faction — have expressed skepticism about the $200 billion ask, but not enough to change the math. [2] So why bother? Because the vote matters even when it fails. Every Republican who votes against the War Powers Resolution is voting to let this president — and every future president — launch sustained military operations without Congressional approval. They're setting a precedent. And midterm voters, particularly in districts where gas prices are up and casualty notices are starting to arrive, will remember. The Democrats who are pushing hardest on this aren't naive. They understand that the most powerful thing the minority party can do is make the majority own its decisions. Force the vote. Put it on the record. Let history judge.

• The 1973 War Powers Resolution requires presidential notification within 48 hours
• Forces withdrawal within 60-90 days without Congressional authorization
• Has never been successfully invoked due to presidential resistance and court ambiguity
• A House resolution would force every member to cast a recorded vote on presidential war authority
• Democrats need to flip roughly 5 Republican votes to pass

The Bigger Picture

Progressive foreign policy critics have argued for years that the post-9/11 expansion of executive war-making authority — through Authorization for Use of Military Force resolutions that Congress rubber-stamped and forgot about — created a structural problem that would eventually be used in ways Congress never intended. [2] They were right. The Iran campaign is that moment. It is a sustained military campaign against a sovereign nation's military infrastructure, killing people, costing billions of dollars per day, spiking global oil prices, and risking regional escalation — and it was launched without a single Congressional vote. The War Powers Resolution Jeffries is preparing won't stop the war. But it will establish, for the record, which members of Congress believe they still have a role in deciding when America goes to war. That's not a small thing. It might be the most important thing this Congress does all year.