Middle East conflicts revive clash between the president and Congress over war powers
A major deadline under the half-century-old War Powers Resolution came recently for President Biden to obtain Congress’ approval to keep waging his military campaign against Yemen’s Houthis, in line with its sole authority under the Constitution to declare war and otherwise authorize military force.
The deadline came, and went, in public silence — even from Senate Democrats frustrated by the Biden administration blowing past some checkpoints that would give Congress more of a say in the U.S.’ deepening military engagement in the Middle East conflicts.
The Biden administration contends that nothing in the War Powers Resolution requires it to change its military support for Israel’s 5-month-old war in Gaza, or two months of U.S. military strikes on the Houthis, or to submit to greater congressional oversight.
That has left some frustrated Senate Democrats calibrating how far to go in confronting a president of their own party over his military authority.
Democrats are wary of undercutting Biden as he faces a difficult reelection campaign. Their ability to act is limited by their control of only one chamber, the Senate, where some Democrats — and many Republicans — back Biden’s military actions in the Middle East.
While Biden’s approach gives him more leeway in how he conducts U.S. military engagement since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks, it risks making any crisis deeper if things go wrong.
James A. Siebens, leader of defense strategy and planning at the Stimson Center in Washington, called the situation a “latent constitutional crisis.”
Religious Zionists, most believing in a divine right to govern, now have outsize influence in Israel. The war in the Gaza Strip is energizing their settlement push.
The Middle East conflicts have revived a long-running clash between presidents — who are the commanders in chief — and Congress — which holds the authority to stop and start wars or lesser uses of military force, and controls the funding.
U.S. and British warships, planes and drones opened attacks on Houthi targets in Yemen on Jan. 11. Hundreds of U.S. strikes have followed. The U.S. strikes are aimed at knocking back attacks by the Iran-backed Houthis, who have seized control of much of northern Yemen, on international shipping in the Red Sea since the Israel-Hamas war began.
Biden formally notified Congress the next day. The administration took pains to frame the U.S. military campaign as defensive actions and not as “hostilities” that fall under the War Powers Resolution.
The resolution gives presidents 60 days after notifying Congress they’ve sent U.S. forces into armed conflict to either obtain its approval to keep fighting or to pull out U.S. troops. That deadline was Tuesday.
The White House continues to insist that the military actions are to defend U.S. forces and do not fall under the 60-day provision.
Congress pushed through the War Powers Resolution over a presidential veto in 1973, moving to reclaim its authority over U.S. wars abroad as President Nixon expanded the Vietnam War.
With family trapped in Gaza, two Palestinian friends in the West Bank hold each other up amid crushing grief.
Since then, presidents have often argued that U.S. involvement in conflicts doesn’t amount to “hostilities” or otherwise fall under the resolution. If lawmakers disapprove, their options include pressuring the executive branch to seek an authorization of military force, trying to get Congress at large to formally order the president to withdraw, withholding funding or stepping up congressional oversight.
For Yemen, Sen. Christopher S. Murphy (D-Conn.) is looking at introducing legislation that would authorize the U.S. campaign against the Houthis under set limits on time, geographical range and scope. The plan has not been previously reported.
Murphy and other Democrats have expressed concern about the effectiveness of the U.S. attacks on the Houthis, the risk of regional escalation and the lack of clarity on the administration’s endgame. They have asked why the administration sees it as the U.S. military’s mission to protect a global shipping route.
“This is ‘hostilities.’ There’s no congressional authorization for them,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) told a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee hearing on obtaining congressional authorization for the strikes on the Houthis. “And it’s not even close.”
Asked what happens now that the 60 days are up, Kaine said it would be premature for Congress to consider authorizing U.S. action against the Houthis without understanding the strategy.
Idaho Sen. Jim Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, had no such doubts.
With too little humanitarian aid reaching Gaza over land, the United States is leading an effort to build a floating pier that will allow deliveries by sea.
“I believe that the president has all the power that he needs under the Constitution to do what he’s doing in Yemen,” Risch said.
But it’s Gaza, and the death toll among Palestinian civilians, that has stirred the most protests from Congress. The Israel-Hamas war also has a far higher profile in U.S. domestic politics. While many Americans are dead-set against any cut in military support to Israel, a growing number of Democratic voters have begun withholding votes from Biden in state presidential primaries to demand more U.S. action for Gaza’s trapped people.
Some in Congress were frustrated early in the war that the administration bypassed congressional review to rush military aid to Israel by declaring a national security emergency.
A presidential order negotiated with Senate Democrats requires Israel to certify in writing by March 25 that it will abide by international law when using U.S. weapons in Gaza and will not impede humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians — or face a possible cut in U.S. military aid.
The United Nations has said Israeli restrictions are keeping many aid trucks from getting into Gaza. The U.S. this month began airdrops and work on a sea route to get vital goods into the territory.
Some in Congress are pushing the administration to cut the military aid now, under existing federal law requiring countries that get U.S. military support to use it in compliance with international law, including by allowing humanitarian access to civilians in conflicts.
A group of Senate Democrats and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont wrote Biden that it was plain that Israel was obstructing humanitarian aid to Gaza. They urged him to cut military aid immediately, absent a turnaround by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, under existing laws on U.S. foreign assistance.
“I’m still flabbergasted” that the administration hasn’t acted, said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), one of the senators pushing hardest on the point.
Knickmeyer writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Farnoush Amiri contributed to this report.
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