Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna and Republican Rep. Thomas Massie are taking a “wait-and-see approach” on their bipartisan resolution aimed at limiting President Donald Trump’s ability to further involve the U.S. in Iran without congressional approval.
But as a tenuous ceasefire agreement appears to be in place between Israel and Iran, Khanna, who represents Silicon Valley, said he wants to keep the pathway to force the House of Representatives to vote on the resolution open.
Asked what Congress should do to preempt future unilateral military action from the White House, Khanna pointed to the process through which the resolution would be able to make its way to the floor without Republican House leadership greenlighting it. War powers resolutions are a privileged procedure in the House, meaning that they can be called for a House vote 15 days after being introduced without any committee action.
“We need to make sure that war powers resolution is still privileged, and they don’t take away the privilege on it,” Khanna said.
On Tuesday, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson suggested the Nixon-era War Powers Act might be unconstitutional because it limits Trump’s ability as commander in chief. Specific resolutions like Khanna and Massie’s fall under that act, which says the president must notify Congress within 48 hours of launching military action and end such action within 60 days if Congress does not declare war. Congress has not declared war since World War II.
For now, both lawmakers appear to be on the same page about their resolution.
“If the ceasefire holds and there’s no further U.S. involvement, then no, but we have to wait and see. It’s all such a fragile situation,” Khanna told NOTUS when asked whether the House should move forward with the resolution regardless of a peace deal. “We’re taking a wait-and-see approach.”
The lawmaker added that he talked with Massie to discuss their next steps. On Monday evening, Politico reported Massie told Johnson he would withdraw the resolution if the peace deal announced by Trump that evening held.
On Tuesday, Massie, a vocal critic of Trump’s strikes on three nuclear sites in Iran over the weekend, told NOTUS he still planned to pursue the resolution if the conflict continues.
“It will depend on if the war keeps going on. It’s a wait-and-see approach,” Massie said, using the same phrase as Khanna.
Massie has received heat from the right for his opposition to the U.S. involvement, including from Trump. The president threatened to campaign “really hard” for a challenger to the Kentucky congressman.
Massie said Trump’s attacks were not a factor in his decision to hold off on the resolution.
“I tweeted about this stuff and then he tweeted at me again,” Massie told NOTUS. “But no, not at all.”
Khanna emphasized how crucial it is to have bipartisan relationships on issues like this.
“It’s very important to have bipartisanship when it comes to opposing wars of choice,” Khanna said. “We don’t have to be in these wars; these are not wars that are being fought in self-defense.”
Samuel Larreal is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow. This story was produced as part of a partnership between NOTUS and San José Spotlight.
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