Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the House will vote on a war powers resolution this week aimed at blocking the Trump administration from ordering new military action against Iran.
Pelosi, a California Democrat, told party lawmakers in a memo late Sunday that the House “will introduce and vote on a War Powers Resolution to limit the President’s military actions regarding Iran.” The resolution mirrors a measure Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, introduced in the Senate.
Democrats have been critical of Trump’s decision to authorize a drone strike that killed Iran military leader Qassem Soleimani, head of the Quds Force and a terrorist who is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American service personnel.
The Trump administration has since deployed 3,500 additional troops in preparation for a potential escalation of aggression in the region.
Democrats said Trump should have asked for their permission for the drone strike as well as another attack that killed dozens of Iraqi military officials.
The attacks, Pelosi said, “endangered our service members, diplomats and others by risking a serious escalation of tensions with Iran.” Pelosi called the strikes “provocative and disproportionate” and said they disregarded the authority of Congress’s war powers.
The resolution the House will vote on, Pelosi said in the memo, “reasserts Congress’s long-established oversight responsibilities by mandating that if no further Congressional action is taken, the Administration’s military hostilities with regard to Iran cease within 30 days.”
The resolution would require Congress to approve of any further military action after the 30 days expires.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, is unlikely to take up the Kaine measure, but Kaine or other supporters of his measure are likely to try to force a vote on it using a procedural maneuver.
There are at least a handful of GOP senators who might support such a resolution, but not enough to override a likely presidential veto.
