House Sends Bill On Trump To Restrict War Powers Against Iran And Veto

On Wednesday, the House gave final approval to a bipartisan resolution to force President Trump to obtain explicit congressional approval before taking further military action against Iran in an attempt by lawmakers to reaffirm the war powers of Congress which is almost certain to be thwarted by a presidential veto.

The vote, from 227 to 186, amounts to a rare decision by Congress to regain authority over war and peace matters from a president who has a penchant for unilateral action and little patience to consult legislators. He strikes Mr. Trump while trying to cope with the growing coronavirus epidemic, more than two months after he moved without congressional authority to kill the most commanding officer. important from Iran.

Trump has threatened to veto the legislation, arguing that it is unnecessary because the United States currently does not use force in Iran, and that it will send a very bad signal of weakness to Iran. The Senate adopted the measure last month in a bipartisan vote, but neither this resolution nor the one that was approved on Wednesday got the support of the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto.

Yet lawmakers argued on Wednesday that measures to restrict the President's war power were not only necessary, but urgent to stop the erosion of Congress's war power.

We do not allow the President's reckless actions, nor have we authorized the use of force against Iran, said representative Jim McGovern, a Democrat from Massachusetts.

The administration's rationale for the January strike that killed Major-General Qassim Suleimani, he continued, is almost as clear as mud.

As lawmakers pressed the White House in the weeks after the strike for a legal justification for the murder, the administration offered a series of changing explanations, first claiming that the president acted in response to an imminent threat and then by giving lawmakers an unclassified memo that claimed it was in response to a growing series of attacks in the past few months by Iran and Iranian-backed militias.

This measure accompanied legislation passed in the Senate by Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia. Eight Republican senators, enraged by the handling of the strike by the administrations, including the thorny briefings they received from senior national security officials from Mr. Trumps then crossed party lines in February to support the measure.