As tensions between the U.S. and Iran continue, a dozen House Democrats, who are all veterans, sent a letter to President Donald Trump on Monday, June 23, imploring the president to involve both Congress and the American public more in conversations before any further military escalations.
The lawmakers said they were reminding the president that only Congress has the power to declare war and expressing support for a war powers resolution that would compel Trump to secure congressional approval before the U.S. takes any other military action against Iran.
Tensions between the U.S. and Iran have escalated since Trump ordered a military strike targeting three Iranian nuclear sites on Saturday. On Monday, Iran launched a limited missile attack on a U.S. military base in Qatar. There were no U.S. casualties, according to Trump, who over the weekend had also floated the idea of an Iranian regime change.
The members of Congress who signed the letter — including Reps. Gil Cisneros of Covina, Ted Lieu of Torrance and Derek Tran of Orange — said they wrote the letter “firstmost as Patriots who love our country” who were “willing to lay down our lives to protect our fellow Americans.” They said they believe that the Iranian government “is intent not only on the destruction of Israel, but also the United States.”
“We are under no illusions about the nature of the Iranian regime and its proxies — they are evil,” the Democrats said.
At the same time, they said, they took an oath to support and defend the Constitution.
View this document on Scribd“Article 1 Section 8 explicitly requires a vote by Congress to declare war. In recognition of that clear and sacred Constitutional duty, we will all be supporting a War Powers Resolution,” the lawmakers said in the letter.
“As our Founders intended, this will ensure we have a full and honest conversation with the American people about what American military action against Iran would mean,” they added.
Multiple war powers resolutions — as referenced in the lawmakers’ letter — have been introduced in recent days by members of Congress to ensure a check on the president’s powers.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, introduced a resolution last week, before the weekend’s strike, that would “direct the removal of United States Armed Forces from hostilities against the Islamic Republic of Iran that have not been authorized by Congress.”
A similar, bipartisan resolution in the lower house has been introduced by Reps. Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, and Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California.
Since Trump announced a military strike targeting three Iranian nuclear sites on Saturday, members of Congress have been sharply divided in their opinions of the president’s actions.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, said Trump’s decision was “the right call,” posting on X that the opportunity for Iran to obtain and use nuclear weapons represented an “imminent danger” that “outweighed the time it would take for Congress to act.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, said in a social media post that those accusing Trump of overstepping his authority are “dead wrong.”
“Congress can declare war or cut off funding. We can’t be the commander in chief. You can’t have 535 commander in chiefs,” Graham said, referring to the number of members of Congress.
And Rep. Young Kim, a Republican who represents communities in Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, said in a post on X Saturday that the “military’s targeted actions tonight against Iranian nuclear sites are necessary to deter Tehran’s nuclear ambitions and save lives.”
“I thank our military for their service in this critical operation to restore peace through strength and am glad they are safely on the way home. I look forward to additional briefings from the administration soon,” Kim said.
But Democrats who signed Monday’s letter addressed to Trump were critical of the president’s actions over the weekend.
“While I strongly support the goal of preventing the Iranian regime from ever getting nuclear weapons, I believe military strikes ordered by President Trump on Iran need congressional authorization,” Lieu, who served in the Air Force, said in a statement.
Sign up for Down Ballot, our Southern California politics email newsletter. Subscribe here.“My position that only Congress has the power to declare war has remained the same regardless of which party the president happens to belong to,” Lieu added.
Tran, who served in the Army, said in a statement provided by his office that he’s concerned about the “reckless, unilateral action” by the Trump administration.
“President Trump’s decision to strike Iran puts our service members at risk and threatens to further destabilize the Middle East and entrench our country in another endless war,” Tran said, adding that the Democratic Veterans Caucus is demanding “that this administration honors its constitutional obligations and takes meaningful action to avoid a misguided, costly military venture.”
Cisneros, a Navy veteran, also condemned Saturday’s military strike.
“As a former Under Secretary of Defense, I know firsthand that our nation does not want to rush into another endless war. … Before we jump into a costly and deadly conflict, we must consider the full ramifications of our actions,” Cisneros said in a statement through his staff.
Like Tran, Cisneros said he was “disturbed” by Trump’s “unilateral decision to engage with Iran without consulting Congress” and that he intended to hold the president to account.
In their letter, the lawmakers said they wanted “hard questions” clearly answered before any further military escalation, including what the United States’ national goals are, how those aims would be achieved, how many young Americans could die, and what the estimated financial costs are.
Members of the Trump administration, including Vice President JD Vance, meanwhile, have insisted that the U.S. is not seeking to be at war.
“We do not want war with Iran,” Vance said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program on Sunday. “We actually want peace, but we want peace in the context of them (Iran) not having a nuclear weapons program.”
This weekend was not the first time a U.S. president had ordered military action without waiting for congressional approval. In 2021, for example, then-President Joe Biden ordered airstrikes in Syria without the consent of Congress, drawing backlash from some members of his own party.
Trump’s latest actions have only renewed a longstanding debate concerning when a U.S. president has the legal authority to issue military orders without first consulting Congress.
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