With the large-scale military buildup in the Middle East, President Donald Trump could take action against Iran at any moment. But on Capitol Hill, lawmakers and staffers are voicing concern that Congress will be cut out of critical developments.
“We have a big decision to make,” Trump told supporters during a Friday rally in Texas. “I’d rather do it the peaceful way. But they’re very difficult people.”
Representatives from Iran and the United States met in Geneva this week and are expected to reconvene in Vienna next week. Trump said he was “not happy” with the lack of progress, leading some Capitol Hill observers to question what might come next.
Will Congress Be ‘Left in the Dark’?
A Republican staffer, granted anonymity to speak candidly, told The Daily Signal that he “would not be surprised if Congress were left in the dark” by the president.
“It is my understanding that this is certainly what will happen if Trump were to engage with Iran,” added another Republican congressional staffer.
The staffers’ remarks come after a bipartisan group of lawmakers led by Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Rep. Rho Kanna, D-Calif., introduced a war powers resolution last June requiring Congress to authorize any act of war against Iran.
Recently, tensions between Iran and the United States reaching a boiling point, prompting the lawmakers to press for a vote on their resolution next week.
“We don’t need to be doing it,” Massie said, as reported on by The Hill. “We took out their nuclear capability, and we don’t need a long and protracted war in the Middle East.
“This is not ‘America First,’” Massie added.
Khanna wrote on X that Trump “can’t [strike Iran] without Congress.”
Massie and Khanna, the pair of lawmakers who headed up efforts to force a release of the Epstein files, did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment.
Last June, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., introduced a similar effort in the Senate, adding that “the American people” have “no interest” in participating in another Middle East war.
“This resolution will ensure that if we decide to place our nation’s men and women in uniform into harm’s way, we will have a debate and vote on it in Congress,” Kaine said at the time.
A Republican congressional staffer who works on defense policy told The Daily Signal said he would not be surprised if Trump took action against the Iranian regime ahead of a vote on the resolution.
“With everything going on, I will not rule out action against Iran before the Dems get a chance to act on their resolution,” he stated.
On Friday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on X that he designated Iran as a state sponsor of wrongful detention for their detainment of “innocent Americans and citizens of other nations for political leverage.”
War Powers Effort Meant to ‘Sabotage’ Trump Administration
Others on Capitol Hill believe the resolution is an attempt to undermine the Trump administration.
A senior Republican staffer told The Daily Signal that he believes the effort to require the president to brief Congress before conducting a strike on Iran would “sabotage” the administration.
“President Trump has kept all options on the table pending the outcome of negotiations with Iran, and Republicans have no reason to join Democrats in pre-emptive sabotage of his efforts before any armed conflict has even started,” he told The Daily Signal.
Another Republican congressional staffer told The Daily Signal that congressional Republicans “trust” Trump and Rubio’s decisions when it comes to deterring America’s enemies, and GOP lawmakers would support the president’s actions, whatever they may be.
Lawmakers such as Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., and Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., said in a statement on Wednesday that they “respect and defend Congress’s constitutional role in matters of war,” but believe “this resolution would restrict the flexibility needed to respond to real and evolving threats and risks, signaling weakness at a dangerous moment.”
Congress Getting More Assertive on War Powers
This is only the latest effort by Congress to assert its authority with the Trump administration.
In September, Democrat lawmakers introduced a war powers resolution to curb the Trump administration’s strikes against suspected drug cartel votes.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who supported the resolution, questioned the “ethical, moral or legal code” of some of the strikes, calling on Congress to “get to the bottom” of it.
At the time, Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said that he didn’t know “whether the administration knows their [narcotraffickers on narcotrafficking boats] identities,” and suggested the administration killed “people who were not engaged in trafficking.”
Kaine added that “Congress simply cannot let itself be stiff-armed as this Administration continues to flout the law,” leading him to introduce the legislation along with Schiff to ensure that there is a “debate and vote on whether the U.S. should be conducting these strikes without congressional approval.”
