Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that the House would vote on Thursday to limit President Trump’s ability to wage military actions against Iran, Politico reports.
The 5-page resolution, sponsored by Michigan Rep. Elissa Slotkin, would bar Trump from engaging in military action against Iran without congressional approval.
“The Administration must work with the Congress to advance an immediate, effective de-escalatory strategy that prevents further violence. America and the world cannot afford war," Pelosi said in a statement.
A similar measure was introduced in the Senate by Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine.
The bills come after Iran attacked US targets in Iraq in retaliation to a drone strike that killed top Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
Senate GOP opposes:
Republican leadership aides told Fox News that the resolution is “toothless” and had no chance of becoming law.
"This concurrent resolution would not even go to the President for signature if it passed the House and Senate," a GOP leadership aide told Fox. "Concurrent resolutions are usually used for authorizing use of the rotunda or basic functions of the Capitol like that. They also do not have the opportunity for the minority to issue a motion to recommit.”
Two GOP Senators rebel:
But Senators Mike Lee and Rand Paul were so incensed by a briefing on Iran delivered by Trump administration officials that they said they would vote with Democrats in favor of the resolution.
Paul said that the administration claimed the killing of Soleimani fell under the 2002 authorization of military force that allowed the Bush administration to invade Iraq. Paul called that “insulting” and “absurd.”
Lee said it was “probably the worst briefing I've seen at least on a military issue in the nine years I've served in the United States Senate."
"What I'm concerned about is the flippant attitude that they reflected, both with regard to the underlying facts on Friday's attack and especially as they relate moving forward to any subsequent attack that we might undertake on Iran," Lee told Fox News. "There was a dismissive attitude, one that was displayed in such a way that resulted in them saying: 'We can't identify what circumstances in which we would need to come back to Congress to get approval or authorization.' That is antithetical to the Constitution."
