Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), the House majority leader, said he supports the war powers legislation that passed the Senate last month and expects to bring it to the floor “in the near future.”
“Whether we’ll do it next week, the following week or the next work session, we’re still working on it,” Hoyer said. “But I want that to come to the floor.”
Sponsored by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), the resolution would require Trump to win congressional approval before launching any new military operations against Iran — a response to the heightened tensions with Tehran that followed Trump’s Jan. 3 drone strike in Baghdad that killed a top Iranian general.
Kaine’s bill is similar to a separate House proposal, sponsored by Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), which passed through the lower chamber in January, just days after the deadly missile strike against Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
While the measures attracted a handful of Republicans in both chambers, the votes are merely symbolic, since they fell far short of the two-thirds majority needed to overturn Trump’s promised veto. The White House, along with Trump’s allies on Capitol Hill, contend they would tie the Pentagon’s hands in the face of imminent threats from foreign adversaries.
Still, Democrats have hoped to send an election-year message that Congress intends to reassert its unique authority, as defined by the Constitution, to declare war.