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Legislators debate the role that Congress should play while the White House weighs its options in Iran.
Does the legislative body have the only power to declare war, or should this power be sold to the president?
The back and forth intervenes as President Donald Trump is thinking of joining Israel in his campaign against Iran or continuing to put pressure for a diplomatic end and returning to the negotiation table to conclude a nuclear agreement with the Islamic Republic.
Thune warns that Iran should return to the table’s negotiation table “ if they are intelligent ”
President Donald Trump on June 15, 2025 (Katopodis / Getty Images Tasos)
It is helped to trigger the arguments on Capitol Hill, there is a pair of resolutions in the Senate and the Chamber which would require a debate and a vote before any force is used against Iran. The measures are designed to control the power of Trump and reaffirm the constitutional authority of the congress.
Senators on both sides of the aisle are divided on the fact that they think they have the only power to authorize a strike against Iran or if Trump can do it on his own will. A predominant argument is that the interest of supporting Israel is to prevent the Islamic Republic from creating or acquiring a nuclear weapon.
Israel has managed to eliminate a few infrastructure parts that were essential to this mission, but have not yet made real damage to the Fordow Fordow HOM enrichment factory and would probably need help from the United States to crack through the layers of rock protecting the site.
“The Constitution says that the prerogative to declare war, the power to declare war, is only a congress,” Senator Rand Paul told Fox News Digital. “He cannot come from the White House. There is no constitutional authority for the president to bomb anyone without asking permission first.”
Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., With journalists at the American Capitol after the room adopted the Big Beautiful Bill Act on May 22, 2025. (Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call, inc)
The Constitution divides the powers of war between the Congress and the White House, giving legislators the only power to declare war, while the president acts as commander -in -chief leading the army.
Then, the 1973 War Powers Act, which sought to define these roles more and to ensure that the president must give an opinion to the congress within 48 hours of the deployment of troops which can only be deployed for 60 days. In particular, the Congress has not officially declared war since the Second World War.
“There is really no argument to explain why he could not obey the Constitution,” said Paul. “Now, I hope he will not, his instinct for restraint would prevail.”
Fox News contacted the White House to comment.
Senator John Kennedy, R-La., Did not agree with Paul and said that he thought that Trump had the capacity to authorize a strike but recognized that he was “mixed” and “darkened” when taking the law on war powers into account.
“It is clear that the congress and the president have a role to play,” he said. “But if you suggest, if the president came to the congress to make this decision, this is condition that year you want the congress to make a decision. Sometimes it takes us months, even years, to do nothing.”
Senator Tim Kaine, D-VA., Speaks with journalists. (Reuters)
The head of the majority of the Senate, John Thune, RS.D., told journalists that he thought that Trump was “perfectly with his right to do what he had done so far” and reiterated that the ultimate objective was to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon.
The Senate Republicans found an unlikely ally among the Democrats of Senator John Fetterman, D-P., Who made the defense vehement of Israel while his party hesitated.
Fetterman told Fox News Digital that he did not believe that a strike on Iran “is starting a war”, echoing the feeling of money that “we have a very specific mission to destroy nuclear installations. It is not a war. It is a necessary soldier … exercise to destroy a nuclear installation”.
And Senator Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Told Fox News Digital “that he was never tried” if the law on war powers was constitutional, but he noted that the law still gave president the authority to act as commander-in-chief.
“I think that is about an unrelevant point if President Trump decides to help Israel with military action with these bunker bombs,” said Johnson. “It is indeed within him which exceeds a kind of action from the congress.”
Senator Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Comments from an audience of the Senate Committee for Internal Security and Government Affairs in the Dirksen Senate Office building April 3, 2025 (Bill Clark / CQ-Roll Call, included via Getty Images)
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However, Senator Tim Kaine, D-VA., Who presented his resolution of war powers on Monday, thought that the measure was gaining momentum among his colleagues.
Kaine told Fox News Digital that, as events have developed, this made “the urgency” of its more apparent resolution. He also expected it would get voting in the senate sometime Next Week. He argued that some Republicans “wanted to be in the midst of hostilities with Iran”.
“But what is interesting is that they have never introduced war permission because their voters would say:” Are you crazy? “” He said. “And, therefore, they would like the president to do it, but they would not want to do it themselves.”
When asked if it was a decision to change his blame elsewhere, Kaine said: “They think that will be the case, but this will not be the case.”
