President Donald Trump has faced nine war powers resolution votes in Congress since taking office last year.
officials are seething at the prospect of fighting another tranche of war powers resolutions, saying that Democrats have “perverted” a law meant to assert congressional authority over declaring war into a “method to delay or obstruct the Republican agenda.
”‘s ability to wage war with Iran. The White House contends the maneuvering is “far from a genuine effort to assert Congress’s constitutional authority.”“They have sort of perverted this into a method to delay or obstruct the Republican agenda, while at the very same time having confirmed Congress’s perspective on these war operations more times than any Congress in history,” a senior White House official told the. “The Democratic gadfly strategy on these, which they’ve been relatively explicit about, has overwhelmingly backfired and led to more congressional support for President Trump’s efforts to safeguard American troops and interests abroad, rather than less.” Trump has faced nine war powers resolution votes in the current Congress: five in the Senate and four concurrent resolutions in the House of Representatives. The first War Powers Resolution was passed in 1973, but, since then, the Senate has only voted on 11 war powers bills in total — eight of which targeted Trump across his first and second terms. “They have lost every single vote at this point, other than a single procedural motion in the Senate, which was quickly reversed,” one senior White House official vented to the. “If I were for nine on these votes, the press would be writing about it.” The original 1973 war powers law required all presidents to notify Congress of U.S. military action within 48 hours and blocked U.S. forces from staying deployed beyond 60 days without additional congressional approval. Both Democrats and Republicans have argued the law is supposed to reassert congressional prerogative to declare war, which the U.S. Constitution explicitly states is exclusive to the legislative branch. Since Trump took office a little over a year ago, Democrats have pushed a slew of war powers resolutions seeking to tie his hands on Venezuela, Iran, as well as preventing the U.S. from striking drug boats in the Caribbean.that the tight math in the Senate has pressed the president’s legislative affairs team to be “involved in every single one” of the votes. However, six Senate Democrats — Cory Booker , Tammy Baldwin , Tammy Duckworth , Tim Kaine , Chris Murphy , and Adam Schiff — are not deterred by repeated failure. The lawmakers have introduced five new war powers resolutions since last week alone.Kaine sponsored four of the five Senate war powers resolutions voted down in the Senate over the past 13 months. The Virginia Democrat discussed his strategy, including the benefits of losing the votes, during a January appearance on“What I’ve learned about these war powers resolutions, they affect White House behavior,” he said at the time. “Even when you lose, you change behavior. And changing behavior is a good thing. That’s what I’m trying, and that means I’m going to file a whole lot more.” “You will see resolutions filed — some I will lead, others, others will lead, and I’ll cosponsor — but you’ll likely see them on Iran, Nigeria, Cuba, Mexico, Colombia, in Greenland, Denmark,” Kaine said.that Democrats’ War Powers push “has to rate as one of the worst legislative strategies of all time.” “Instead of showcasing Republican divisions, they have put the Congress on record over and over again backing the president’s constitutional authorities to carry out his policies,” she wrote in a statement. Republican Senators are also fuming at the prospect of having to, once again, whip votes against the upcoming stack of resolutions. “Every time President Trump has used our military to protect American interests, Senate Democrats have shown that they would rather play politics and jam up the Senate floor than support our troops,” Sen. Tom Cotton told theSenate Majority Whip John Barrasso claimed that the War Powers votes “aren’t focused on advancing the needs of the nation. “They aren’t focused on helping people or protecting Americans. None of that is true,” he said. “These resolutions are about slowing down the Senate, throwing sand into the gears. All to try to create theater. Not to help protect our troops, not to help protect our people, not to make the world safer. Not at all. That’s what this is all about. Democrats’ hand has been shown.” Sen. Rand Paul , a frequent critic of the president and the only Republican to vote in favor of last week’s failed War Powers bill on Iran, said on Fox Business Tuesday that convincing Republicans to constrain Trump’s war-making capabilities is virtually impossible once fighting has already started. “Our Founding Fathers thought that, really, war happened too often, war should be the last resort, and that is why we should have Congress vote on it first,” he stated during an interview with Maria Bartiromo. “It’s very difficult after it starts, really, to have a debate over this because once the soldiers are in the field, it’s very hard to have this debate.”Asked to comment on the White House’s comments, the six Democratic senators behind the latest tranche of resolutions provided a joint statement to the“Have we learned nothing from the last 25 years of war in the Middle East? Americans do not want their taxpayer dollars funding another potential forever war as they carry the crushing weight of Republicans’ price hikes and health care cuts at home,” Kaine, Murphy, Booker, Baldwin, Schiff, Duckworth wrote. “Now is the time for Democrats to use all the leverage we have to try to stop this unnecessary war.”
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