US Democrats will try, and try again, to rein in Trump’s Iran war powers

Follow our live coverage here.

WASHINGTON – The US Senate will vote as soon as April 15 on the latest Democratic-led effort to rein in US President Donald Trump’s war powers, and party leaders promised on April 14 to keep bringing up such resolutions as long as the Iran war continues.

“Forty-five days into this war, Congress has been sidelined because our Republican colleagues refuse to take a strong stand against this war and duck it completely because they’re afraid of Trump,” Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said in a Senate speech on April 14.

Mr Trump said on April 14 that talks to end the Iran war could resume in Pakistan over the next two days, after the collapse of weekend negotiations prompted Washington to impose a blockade on Iranian ports.

Failure to reach an agreement in those talks raised doubts over the survival of a two-week ceasefire that still has a week to run.

Congressional Democrats have tried and repeatedly failed in recent months to pass war powers resolutions to force Mr Trump to stop military action and obtain lawmakers’ authorisation before launching military operations, in both Venezuela and Iran.

Democrats are attempting to link their efforts to rein in Mr Trump on Iran to affordability, as disruptions in shipments of oil and natural gas have caused a run-up in US petrol prices and agricultural products such as fertilizers – on top of the long list of other high consumer prices.

Few issues resonate with US voters more deeply than price increases, and the latest inflationary upswing is unsettling Republican insiders worried about their party’s prospects less than seven months before November elections that will determine control of Congress.

10 more resolutions in the works

Mr Schumer said 10 more war powers resolutions have been filed and Democrats intended to bring them up every week while the conflict in Iran, which began on Feb 28, continues.

Mr Trump’s fellow Republicans, who hold slim majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives, have blocked the resolutions that have come up to date and there has been no indication that any are shifting their position.

Republican lawmakers say they support Mr Trump’s actions and do not expect the war to continue for much longer. “The military effort here has been extraordinarily successful,” Senate Republican leader John Thune of South Dakota told a news conference.

“I think the administration has a clear objective, a clear plan, and if they can execute on it that question (of whether Congress should authorise a prolonged conflict) won’t be a necessary one that we will be forced to answer,” Mr Thune said.

Although the US Constitution says that Congress, not the president, can declare war, that restriction does not apply for short-term operations or if the country faces an immediate threat.

The White House says Mr Trump’s actions are legal and within his rights as commander-in-chief to protect the US by ordering limited military operations.

Timing of the vote had not been announced by the evening of April 14, but Senate aides said they expected the next resolution – sponsored by Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, a combat veteran – to come to the floor as soon as April 15.

House of Representatives aides said they expected a vote on a similar Iran war powers resolution in that chamber as soon as April 16. REUTERS