SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
war powers act
'Ceasefire in Name Only': Israel Bombs Beirut With Approval From Trump Administration
"The Israeli government continues to drop US-made bombs in Lebanon," said one Democratic lawmaker. "Congress can and must put an end to the violence in the region."
May 07, 2026
The Israeli military on Wednesday bombed the suburbs of the Lebanese capital for the first time since a ceasefire agreement was announced in mid-April by US President Donald Trump, whose administration reportedly coordinated with Israel on the latest strike.
"This is a ceasefire in name only," US Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) wrote in response to the bombing, which Israel said killed a top Hezbollah commander. "Israel needs to adhere to the ceasefire and work in good faith toward a permanent end to the larger war with Iran and Lebanon."
According to the United Nations, at least 380 people have been killed by Israeli strikes on Lebanon since the ceasefire agreement took effect. Trump announced a three-week extension of the ceasefire deal on April 23.
The target of Wednesday's strike on Beirut's southern suburbs "appeared to be a 10-story building in the Haret Hreik neighborhood next to a school," The Washington Post reported, citing satellite imagery and open-source material. "Photos of the aftermath showed half the building leveled and excavator machines digging beneath the rubble."
The Israeli military also bombed the southern Lebanese town of Zelaya on Wednesday, killing at least four people, including two women and an elderly man, Lebanon's Ministry of Health said.
Early Thursday, the Israeli military issued new displacement orders for southern Lebanon, instructing the residents of Deir al-Zahrani, Bafroa, and Habush to leave their homes.
The Wednesday attack on Beirut's suburbs, according to an unnamed Israeli official cited by the country's broadcasting authority, was "carried out in coordination with the US."
"This would be a clear violation of the War Powers Act 8(c)—further strengthening the case for Congress to urgently pass Rep. Rashida Tlaib's (D-Mich.) Lebanon War Powers Resolution," said Erik Sperling, executive director of the US-based advocacy group Just Foreign Policy.
Tlaib unveiled her legislation in late March, demanding the "removal of all US Armed Forces’ participation in unauthorized hostilities in Lebanon, including involvement in targeting assistance and intelligence sharing for the Israeli airstrikes and ground invasion."
"We must act now to stop this campaign of ethnic cleansing," Tlaib said at the time.
US Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), who co-led the Lebanon resolution with Tlaib, said Wednesday that "the unaccountable, unlawful, inhumane campaign of death and displacement continues."
"The Israeli government continues to drop US-made bombs in Lebanon. More than 2,600 people have died, and over 8,350 people are injured," said Ramirez. "Congress can and must put an end to the violence in the region. We must Block the Bombs and pass the Lebanon War Power Resolution."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Khanna, Massie Push to Block Trump's Ability to Strike Iran Without Congressional Consent
"A war with Iran would be catastrophic," Rep. Ro Khanna said. "Congress must do its job and stop this march to war."
Feb 19, 2026
As US President Donald Trump appears poised to launch a massive war with Iran, Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie say they will attempt to force the House to vote on a war powers resolution next week, after Congress returns from recess.
"Trump officials say there's a 90% chance of strikes on Iran. He can’t without Congress," Khanna (D-Calif.) wrote Wednesday night on social media following reports of a massive US military mobilization toward the Middle East.
He said that he and Massie (R-Ky.) "have a War Powers Resolution to debate and vote on... before putting US troops in harm’s way," adding, "I will make a motion to discharge to force a vote on it next week."
It’s not the first time that the progressive and the libertarian have teamed up in an attempt to place a check on the White House, including Trump’s ability to attack Iran.
In June, days after Trump launched strikes against three Iranian nuclear sites amid the nation's 12-day war with Israel, the pair cosponsored a resolution along with 75 other representatives to require congressional approval for any further military actions. However, the bill stalled out after a ceasefire between Iran and Israel was reached.
This time, however, a full-scale war appears much more likely.
"Trump is positioning two aircraft carriers, a dozen warships, and hundreds of fighter jets to prepare for a possible war with Iran," Khanna said.
"A war with Iran would be catastrophic," he went on. "Iran is a complex society of 90 million people with significant air defenses and military capabilities. We also have 30,000 to 40,000 US troops in the region who could be at risk of retaliation. Congress must do its job and stop this march to war."
Massie emphasized that Article I, Section 8 of the US Constitution gives Congress the explicit authority "to declare war."
Under the 1973 War Powers Resolution, the president is allowed to deploy military force without authorization from Congress, but only in narrow circumstances—when there is a "national emergency created by an attack upon the United States."
In this case, however, Massie said, "There’s no imminent threat from Iran to invoke [this exception in] the 1973 War Powers Act."
A discharge petition, which would force a war powers resolution onto the floor for a vote even without approval from the Republican majority, would require 218 members of the House.
It would not be the first war powers resolution to reach a floor vote. Multiple resolutions to rein in Trump's ability to strike boats in the Caribbean and to wage war on Venezuela have come up just short in recent months.
In January, weeks after Trump’s operation to overthrow Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and commandeer the nation’s oil, a resolution requiring him to seek congressional approval for US military presence there failed by a vote of 215-215, just one yes vote short of passing in the House, where a deadlock means legislation cannot be approved. Massie was joined by one other Republican, Don Bacon (R-Neb.), in crossing party lines to vote with Democrats.
Another prominent Republican critic of Trump's warmongering, former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), had also joined in voting for previous war powers resolutions. However, she resigned from her seat in early January amid a falling out with Trump.
If all 213 Democrats vote in favor of a discharge petition, it's unclear which three Republicans might join Massie and Bacon to pass it. To take effect, the bill would also have to pass the GOP-controlled Senate.
Congress is currently on recess and will not return until Monday, by which time a war may already have begun. However, Khanna said the vote is still important.
"If Trump is preparing to bomb Iran soon and others call for troops on the ground, Congress must get on the record, so Americans know where their representatives stand," he said.
Polls suggest that a war with Iran is overwhelmingly unpopular with the American people. A YouGov survey from early February found that 48% said they strongly or somewhat opposed military action in Iran, compared with just 28% who supported it and 24% who weren’t sure.
"Like the votes before the Iraq War, this could be one of the most consequential votes in the history of Congress," Khanna said. "Are we going to stop another endless dumb foreign war? Or will the neoconservatives mislead us once again?"
The Trump administration has provided little in the way of a public justification for a new war with Iran, while Democratic leadership has been criticized for failing to forcefully stand against it.
"The American public hasn't even gotten a semblance of a rationale from Trump as to why we have to attack Iran now," said Nathan Thompson, a senior policy adviser at Just Foreign Policy. "Congress needs to call up a war powers vote and do its job immediately to stop this disaster from unfolding."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Ilhan Omar Slams Latest Trump Attack on Venezuelan Boat as 'Egregious Violation'
"There is NO legal justification," the progressive congresswoman said. "It risks spiraling into the exact type of endless, pointless conflict that Trump supposedly opposes."
Sep 16, 2025
US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar on Tuesday condemned the Trump administration's attack the previous day on a second boat allegedly transporting drugs off the coast of Venezuela as blatantly illegal, highlighting her introduction last week of a war powers resolution in a bid to stop the aggression.
President Donald Trump announced Monday that the US destroyed what he said was a boat used by Venezuelan drug gangs, killing three people in what one Amnesty International campaigner called "an extrajudicial execution."
The strike followed a September 2 US attack on another alleged drug-running boat that killed 11 people, which Omar (D-Minn.) called a "lawless and reckless" action.
Responding to Monday's attack, Omar said on the social media site X that the Trump administration "is once again using the failed War on Drugs to justify their egregious violation of international law."
"There is NO legal justification," she said of the attack. "It risks spiraling into the exact type of endless, pointless conflict that Trump supposedly opposes. I have a war powers resolution to fight back."
Introduced last Thursday, the measure aims to stop the US attacks, which coincide with Trump's deployment of a small armada of warships off the Caribbean coast of Venezuela, a country that has endured to more than a century of US meddling in its affairs.
"All of us should agree that the separation of powers is crucial to our democracy, and that only Congress has the power to declare war," Omar said at the time.
The War Powers Act of 1973—enacted during the Nixon administration at the tail end of the US war on Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos—empowers Congress to check the president’s war-making authority. The law requires the president to report any military action to Congress within 48 hours and mandates that lawmakers must approve troop deployments after 60 days.
Also last week, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) led a letter signed by two dozen Democratic colleagues and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) asserting that the Trump administration offered “no legitimate justification” for the first boat strike.
Omar's condemnation of the US attacks followed Monday's announcement by US Reps. Nancy Mace (R-SC) and Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) of separate resolutions to strip Omar of her committee assignments and, in the case of Mace's measure, censure the congresswoman after she reportedly shared a video highlighting assassinated far-right firebrand Charlie Kirk's prolific bigotry.
Trump also attacked Omar on Monday, calling her a "disgraceful person," a "loser," and "disgusting."
Omar is no stranger to censure efforts, which critics say are largely fueled by Islamophobia—and haven't just come from Republicans. In 2019, she was falsely accused of antisemitism by leaders of her own party and was the subject of an anti-hate speech resolution passed by House lawmakers after she remarked about the indisputable financial ties the pro-Israel lobbying group American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and members of Congress.
In February 2023, Omar was ousted from the House Foreign Affairs Committee for years-old comments that allegedly referenced antisemitic tropes.
Last year, Congressman Don Bacon (R-Neb.) introduced a censure resolution after Omar said of Jewish students at Columbia University, "We should not have to tolerate antisemitism or bigotry for all Jewish students, whether they're pro-genocide or anti-genocide."
The measure failed to pass, as did another put forth earlier last year by Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) after she mistranslated remarks Omar made in Somali.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular