Senate Refuses to Kill Bid for War Powers Act

The Senate today refused to kill a move to invoke the War Powers Act in the wake of the latest U.S.-Iranian military clash as President Reagan complained about congressional demands that the act be invoked and said, “You can’t have 535 secretaries of state.”

The chamber voted 52 to 37 against tabling, which would have killed, a resolution by Sen. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. (R-Conn.) to begin the process of invoking the 1973 law.

But the entire issue remained unresolved as Republicans indicated that they might filibuster to block a final vote on the resolution.

It was the second major Senate vote in a month on the War Powers Act. On Sept. 18, the Senate tabled a similar move on a 50-41 vote.

“Everybody is bobbing and weaving, trying to avoid the law. But it’s there and we should follow it,” Weicker said, adding that he would “probably vote to support” Reagan’s Persian Gulf policy should that policy come up for a Senate vote.

Senate Republican Leader Bob Dole of Kansas opposed the War Powers proposal, saying, “It just doesn’t make much sense to invoke in this instance a document whose relevance is, at best, debatable.

“And the main reason it doesn’t make sense is this is not some kind of academic debate. Vital U.S. interests, to some degree U.S. lives, could be at stake.”

Shortly before the vote, Reagan, in an interview with Cable News Network, said, if a President needs the permission of Congress to act, “what confidence would the world have in you?”

The vote came hours after White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said the White House still sees no justification for arguments by lawmakers that it is required to formally notify Congress under provisions of the law.

“We believe we are complying with the law. It was a purely defensive act,” he said of the U.S. sinking of an Iranian boat and the disabling of two others. “There was no provocation by U.S. forces.”

‘Thicket of Quicksand’

Fitzwater added that the Administration planned to keep Congress informed “as we have all along.” U.S. naval forces in the gulf are protecting reflagged Kuwaiti tankers against attack by Iran.

Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.) said Weicker’s proposal would put U.S. military forces in the war-torn gulf into “a Byzantine thicket of quicksand.”

The War Powers Act requires a report from the White House within 48 hours after U.S. forces are sent to an area of “imminent danger” and the removal of those forces within 60 days unless Congress specifically approves their deployment.