The Trump administration maintains that as of Tuesday, the ceasefire with Iran is still in effect and, as a result, they are not up against the War Powers Act’s 60-day deadline.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth affirmed in a Tuesday morning briefing that the deal is still in place and previously told lawmakers that the “60-day clock pauses or stops in a ceasefire,” which the White House quickly supported.
Recommended Stories
Despite his stance about the ceasefire, which President Donald Trump announced on April 7, U.S. Navy vessels were shot at on Monday and subsequently retaliated by blowing up several Iranian small boats. Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Iran carried out attacks on nine commercial vessels, seized two container ships, and attempted more than 10 attacks targeting U.S. forces, though he said these instances were “all below the threshold of restarting major combat operations at this point.”
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill had believed that the 60-day mark, which under the War Powers Resolution of 1973 compels Congress to either authorize the war or the president must begin shutting down U.S. participation in a conflict, would expire at the end of last week. Hegseth’s stance, which was later echoed by White House officials, would mean the conflict has gone on for much less than 60 days.
The White House officially notified Congress of the war on March 2, two days after the opening strikes on Feb. 28, and the April 7 ceasefire would mean the conflict is weeks away from hitting the 60-day deadline. Under this timeline, the president could restart offensive operations against Iran for multiple weeks before the 60-day deadline would hit.
Trump threatened again on Wednesday that if Iran does not agree to a deal with the United States, “the bombing starts, and it will be, sadly, at a much higher level and intensity than it was before.”
If the president opts to restart offensive military operations, it will likely reignite conversations about the War Powers Act as it relates to the conflict.
Presidents long before Trump have argued the War Powers Resolution is unconstitutional and infringes upon their rights as the commander in chief, a point Secretary of State Marco Rubio made during the White House press briefing on Tuesday. But the resolution has never been legally adjudicated.
“Now we comply with it in terms of, like, notification because we want to preserve good relations with Congress, right? And we do that,” Rubio said, stressing that it “has been the position of every single presidential administration since the day that law passed, as an infringement on the president’s constitutional powers.”
Former President Barack Obama’s administration blew through the 60-day deadline for its aerial bombing campaign against Libya, and former President Bill Clinton did the same with the 1999 Kosovo aerial campaign, which went on for 78 days. Former President George W. Bush, meanwhile, received congressional authorization for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Congress passed the War Powers Resolution of 1973 over the veto of then-President Richard Nixon to put constraints on the president’s power to carry out wars in the wake of the Vietnam War. The law requires the president to notify congressional leaders within 48 hours after U.S. forces are introduced into “situations where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances.”
Upon congressional notification, the president will then have a maximum of 60 days unless Congress votes to extend the conflict.
In early 2000, a federal appeals court ruled that more than 30 members of Congress who accused then-President Clinton of overstepping his presidential authority by not abiding by the 60-day deadline did not have standing to pursue their legal challenge.
Should Congress not do anything now with the on-again, off-again conflict with Iran, future administrations “will be emboldened,” according to former California Republican Rep. Tom Campbell, who led that lawsuit.
He warned that if Trump blows through the 60-day period with the war in Iran, it would set a dangerous precedent moving forward.
“They will be emboldened. The compromise of the War Powers Act gave the president 60 days before he needed to get the approval of Congress. Even that restraint will have been removed,” Campbell told the Washington Examiner. “If you cannot take this to a neutral third branch, then even the 60-day constraint is gone, and the president can use force as long as he wishes.”
He suggested lawmakers put a vote to authorize the war on the floor to get them on the record about whether they support the war, and if it fails, they can present that failed vote to the court.
CEASEFIRE IS ONGOING DESPITE IRAN’S MISSILE ATTACKS: HEGSETH
Jules Lobel, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh who represented the group of lawmakers in the Clinton suit, told the Washington Examiner: “The lesson of the Campbell v. Clinton case is that it is very, very difficult to adjudicate this on the merits, for a number of reasons. First of all, the courts don’t like to adjudicate war powers claims. They want to stay out of these kinds of claims, and it’s very difficult to get a court to intervene.”
Congress also controls appropriations, so lawmakers could try to force the president’s hand by refusing additional funding requests for the Pentagon. But that could be a difficult proposition if they’re asking for money to replace expended stockpiles.
