By Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON, April 14 (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate will vote as soon as Wednesday on the latest Democratic-led effort to rein in President Donald Trump’s war powers, and party leaders promised on Tuesday to keep bringing up such resolutions as long as the Iran war continues.
“Forty-five days into this war, Congress has been sidelined because our Republican colleagues refuse to take a strong stand against this war and duck it completely because they’re afraid of Trump,” Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said in a Senate speech on Tuesday.
Trump said on Tuesday talks to end the Iran war could resume in Pakistan over the next two days, after the collapse of weekend negotiations prompted Washington to impose a blockade on Iranian ports. Failure to reach an agreement in those talks raised doubts over the survival of a two-week ceasefire that still has a week to run.
Congressional Democrats have tried and repeatedly failed in recent months to pass war powers resolutions to force Trump to stop military action and obtain lawmakers’ authorization before launching military operations, in both Venezuela and Iran.
Democrats are attempting to link their efforts to rein in Trump on Iran to affordability, as disruptions in shipments of oil and natural gas have caused a run-up in U.S. gasoline prices and agricultural products such as fertilizers – on top of the long list of other high consumer prices.
Few issues resonate with U.S. voters more deeply than price increases, and the latest inflationary upswing is unsettling Republican insiders worried about their party’s prospects less than seven months before November elections that will determine control of Congress.
10 MORE RESOLUTIONS IN THE WORKS
Schumer said 10 more war powers resolutions have been filed and Democrats intended to bring them up every week while the conflict in Iran, which began on February 28, continues.
Trump’s fellow Republicans, who hold slim majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives, have blocked the resolutions that have come up to date and there has been no indication that any are shifting their position.
Republican lawmakers say they support Trump’s actions and do not expect the war to continue for much longer. “The military effort here has been extraordinarily successful,” Senate Republican leader John Thune of South Dakota told a news conference.
“I think the administration has a clear objective, a clear plan, and if they can execute on it that question (of whether Congress should authorize a prolonged conflict) won’t be a necessary one that we will be forced to answer,” Thune said.
Although the U.S. Constitution says that Congress, not the president, can declare war, that restriction does not apply for short-term operations or if the country faces an immediate threat.
The White House says Trump’s actions are legal and within his rights as commander-in-chief to protect the U.S. by ordering limited military operations.
Timing of the vote had not been announced by Tuesday evening, but Senate aides said they expected the next resolution – sponsored by Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, a combat veteran – to come to the floor as soon as Wednesday.
House of Representatives aides said they expected a vote on a similar Iran war powers resolution in that chamber as soon as Thursday.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
