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war powers act
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."
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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.
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Another 'Extrajudicial Execution' as US Bombs Second Alleged Venezuelan Drug Boat
"There is no legal justification for this military strike," said one Amnesty International campaigner. "The US must be held accountable."
Sep 15, 2025
President Donald Trump said Monday that the US carried out a fresh strike on what he said was a boat used by Venezuelan drug gangs, killing three people in what one human rights campaigner called another "extrajudicial execution."
"This morning, on my Orders, US Military Forces conducted a SECOND Kinetic Strike against positively identified, extraordinarily violent drug trafficking cartels and narcoterrorists in the [US Southern Command] area of responsibility," Trump said on his Truth Social network. "The Strike occurred while these confirmed narcoterrorists from Venezuela were in International Waters transporting illegal narcotics (A DEADLY WEAPON POISONING AMERICANS!) headed to the US."
"These extremely violent drug trafficking cartels POSE A THREAT to US National Security, Foreign Policy, and vital US Interests," the Republican president continued. "The Strike resulted in three male terrorists killed in action. No US Forces were harmed in this Strike."
"BE WARNED—IF YOU ARE TRANSPORTING DRUGS THAT CAN KILL AMERICANS, WE ARE HUNTING YOU!" Trump added. "The illicit activities by these cartels have wrought DEVASTATING CONSEQUENCES ON AMERICAN COMMUNITIES FOR DECADES, killing millions of American Citizens. NO LONGER. Thank you for your attention to this matter!!!"
US President Trump just announced that a second drug smuggling boat from Venezuela was hit by a US airstrike in the Caribbean, killing 3 people on board the boat.#Venezuela pic.twitter.com/dO34gYr9GZ
— CNW (@ConflictsW) September 15, 2025
Responding to arguments by legal experts and Venezuelan officials that the September 2 strike was illegal, Trump said Sunday that "what's illegal are the drugs that were on the boat... and the fact that 300 million people died last year from drugs."
Only 62 million people died in the entire world of all causes last year, making Trump's claim impossibly false.
Monday's attack followed the September 2 bombing of a vessel allegedly transporting cocaine off the Venezuelan coast, a strike that killed 11 people. Venezuelan officials say none of the 11 men were members of the Tren de Aragua gang, as claimed by Trump.
On his first day back in the White House, Trump signed an executive order designating drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. Last month, the president reportedly signed a secret order directing the Pentagon to use military force to combat drug cartels abroad, sparking fears of renewed US aggression in a region that has endured well over 100 US attacks, invasions, occupations, and other interventions since the issuance of the dubious Monroe Doctrine in 1823.
The Intercept's Nick Turse reported Monday that the Trump administration's recently rebranded Department of War "is thwarting congressional oversight" of the September 2 attack.
“I’m incredibly disturbed by this new reporting that the Trump administration launched multiple strikes on the boat off Venezuela,” Congresswoman Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) said in response to Turse's reporting. “They didn’t even bother to seek congressional authorization, bragged about these killings—and teased more to come.”
Common Dreams reported last week that Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) introduced a war powers resolution seeking to restrain Trump from conducting attacks in the Caribbean.
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.
It's not just congressional Democrats who have decried Trump's September 2 attack. Last week, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said that "the recent drone attack on a small speedboat over 2,000 miles from our shore without identification of the occupants or the content of the boat is in no way part of a declared war, and defies our longstanding Coast Guard rules of engagement."
“What a despicable and thoughtless sentiment it is to glorify killing someone without a trial," Paul later added.
Paul also mirrored Democratic lawmakers' questioning of Trump's narrative that the boat bombed on September 2 was heading to the United States.
Echoing congressional critics, Daphne Eviatar, director of Amnesty International's Security With Human Rights program, said of Monday's attack, "Today, President Trump claimed his administration carried out another lethal strike against a boat in the Caribbean."
"This is an extrajudicial execution, which is murder," Eviatar added. "There is no legal justification for this military strike. The US must be held accountable."
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