U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to Capitol Hill on Tuesday in an effort to head off a potential “revolt” from lawmakers angered by the Trump administration’s decision to attack Iran without notifying Congress — let alone without seeking its authorization — a move critics say violates the U.S. Constitution.
The House and Senate are set to vote this week on resolutions to put guardrails on President Donald Trump‘s ability to use unilateral military force, Politico reports.
Secretary Rubio on Monday said that “Congress can vote on whatever they want. But there’s no law that requires us” to obtain congressional approval before going to war.
“Look, that is fine if they want to take a war powers vote,” Rubio told reporters. “They can do that. They’ve done that. They’ve done that a bunch of times. But there’s no – people keep saying that we have – there’s no law that requires the President to have done anything with regards to this. To begin with, no presidential administration has ever accepted the War Powers Act as constitutional – not Republican presidents, not Democratic presidents.”
On Tuesday afternoon, Rubio will be joined by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, to brief members of Congress on the President’s military actions in Iran.
Politico adds that “lawmakers on both sides are decrying a lack of details from the administration — including evidence that Iran posed an imminent threat to the U.S. that would necessitate military action.”
Some prominent Democrats blasted Rubio’s claim that there is no law that requires the administration to obtain congressional approval.
“There is a law,” wrote U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA). “It’s called the frickin Constitution of the United States.”
But Speaker of the House Mike Johnson pushed back on efforts to put guardrails on the President.
“The idea that we would take the ability of our commander in chief … to finish this job, is a frightening prospect to me,” he said.
