[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 76 (Thursday, April 30, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2152-S2153]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         WAR POWERS RESOLUTION

  Mr. BOOKER. Mr. President, I am grateful to have this opportunity, 
and it really is about the fact that very soon, my colleague from 
California Adam Schiff will be bringing another War Powers Resolution 
to the floor.
  This is the sixth time that a group of us has said every single week 
we are going to continue to bring these War Powers Resolutions to the 
floor. And why? Clearly, we know the outcome of the vote. Why are we 
doing this? Well, we are doing this because it has almost been a month 
now that this Nation has been at war. In fact, we are coming up to that 
very 60-day mark. And we are a nation that has now pledged tens of 
billions of dollars we have spent in an overseas war where 14 
servicemembers have died, where hundreds more have been injured, where 
our President has given multiple different reasons for going into this 
war, and none of them have been achieved. In other words, there has 
been no regime change--the regime is more extreme; their incredible 
race towards highly enriched fissile material is still there in their 
country; and we are seeing a nation that is still showing military 
capabilities.
  Yes, we have degraded their navy and their air force, but now, with 
low-cost drones, they are still able to inflict a lot of damage to 
their neighbors, to our allies. And they have closed the Strait of 
Hormuz--something that was not going on before but has caused a global 
oil shock that is hurting Americans at home. Tens of billions of 
taxpayer dollars--Americans spending hundreds, if not thousands of 
dollars--all to support President Trump's folly--costly, tragic folly.
  And what do we do? We are bringing these War Powers Resolutions to 
the floor to force this body not to treat this like another normal day. 
American soldiers are in the line of fire. This is not normal that a 
President for almost 60 days has been able to conduct a war with this 
body being silent on it. In fact, today, we are having our first ever 
hearing with the Secretary of Defense, and he is saying that this war 
is going well. Well, by what account?
  The American people are against this war. The American people are 
paying the price for this war. American soldiers are dying for this 
war. Hundreds more have been injured for this war. We see a crisis in 
the Middle East that is growing and not subsiding.
  So this is yet another attempt of ours to force this body to confront 
an ill-gotten war, a war that has pulled us into further and deeper 
crisis, yet another quagmire in the Middle East.
  I want to make a couple of points. The War Powers Act says that a 
President can act in defense of this Nation if it is an imminent 
threat. We have not seen that. But many people have been saying that 
the reason why he doesn't need to come to this body for a declaration 
of war is because of the War Powers Act.
  So let's assume that he actually did have an imminent provocation--
which I say it was not there, but let's assume for argument's sake that 
there was an imminent threat to the United States of America that this 
President had to act upon. That would have triggered 60 days.
  The Senate now should be either acting on a war declaration or the 
Senate should be waiting for the President to ask for 30 more days. 
That is one of the two choices according to the legislation, the law of 
the United States of America. But just moments ago, in an open hearing, 
we had the Secretary of Defense say: Well, no, no, no, that 60 days is 
paused because we are in a cease-fire.
  That is illogical and not in alignment with the law of our land. We 
have an active military blockade going on. That is actually an act of 
war by our own laws and regulations. We have an area of this nation--
the Strait of Hormuz--under a blockade, an act of war. It is demanding 
aircraft carrier groups. It is demanding thousands of U.S. soldiers 
engaged and on the frontline.
  The cease-fire does not somehow escape his necessity to come to 
Congress after 60 days. To use that as some kind of escape valve to 
further escape scrutiny, debate, oversight, accountability to this body 
is unacceptable.
  I have heard some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle--
the Senator from Alaska, the Senator from North Carolina, the Senator 
from Maine, many of my colleagues, the Senator from Utah--say that the 
60 days, to them, matters.
  So here is a bipartisan conclusion. We are about to go out on a 
recess. The question is, What will we do as a body when the President 
has not come forward after 60 days of this military conflict to ask for 
any kind of authority?
  This was not the constitutional demand of our Nation. This is not the 
law that we have sworn an oath to uphold. This is insanity that we--the 
most powerful deliberative body in the world that has a constitutional 
obligation where war powers sit with us--for us to do nothing, not to 
demand that the President come before us and make his case and let 
there be a vote of whether we declare war or not. We are at war. Sixty 
days have passed, and we are still doing nothing.
  So I am going to do everything I can with my colleagues to continue 
to force this body to confront this failing war where we are losing 
American soldiers; where hundreds have been injured; where we are 
spending tens of billions of dollars; where the regime is more radical 
and more extreme; when they still have the highly enriched fissile 
material in their country; where they have new capabilities that have 
been exposed, like their ability to cause havoc with low-cost drones; 
and where they have now choked the Strait of Hormuz, causing shocks 
around the country. And we are doing nothing? That is unacceptable.
  I want to make this last point. Donald Trump has engaged us in this 
war to stop them from getting a nuclear weapon. But remember that in 
2015, we had the JCPOA. We had our NATO allies, European allies, 
Russia, China, and Iran all agreeing that Iran would, No. 1, ship out 
of country their highly enriched uranium, which they did; that all of 
their enrichment facilities, from Natanz to Fordow, would be open to 
snap inspections and constant surveillance, which it was; that their 
mining

[[Page S2153]]

facilities would be under surveillance and snap inspections as well, 
which it was. Iran's ability to enrich uranium over a certain amount 
was stopped.
  President Trump criticized that deal and ripped it up, and at that 
moment, Iran raced to enrich uranium that put them closer and closer to 
breakout, and that was the pretext that Donald Trump said he invaded. 
It was one of the many pretexts of what he said is the reason why he 
started this war.
  Well, he caused that problem, ripped up a deal, and now he is racing 
to negotiate some way to get back to many of the same aspects of that 
very deal. This is what the President has done. He created the crisis, 
declared war to stop the crisis he created, and still has not solved 
that crisis. This is the great dealmaker. This is the person that said 
they would keep us out of wars like this that has gotten us into those 
wars. And now we have no off-ramp, while Americans are suffering with 
higher prices, higher costs, and billions of dollars of taxpayer money 
that could be used to reduce the deficit, reduce prescription drug 
costs, reduce the cost of health insurance or other things that are 
high priorities for Americans.
  So today, instead of ignoring this problem, we are going to force a 
vote. My colleague Adam Schiff will bring forward a War Powers 
Resolution.
  This is a sad moment for this body. Sixty days is about to pass, and 
we are doing nothing to demand any kind of oversight, any kind of 
accountability, or even following the War Powers Act by the letter of 
the law. We are allowing the President to flaunt our Constitution, to 
flaunt our laws. The only thing necessary for the Constitution to be so 
trashed and broken is for the good people of this body to do nothing.
  We are about to celebrate 250 years of our Nation's history. When the 
Constitution was created, this body was created, as Federalist Papers 
No. 47 says, to be a check on our President, to ensure that they don't 
overstep their powers, to assure that they don't abuse their office. 
That is the constitutional calling for this body.
  There are soldiers in harm's way right now defending the Constitution 
with their lives. The least we could be doing here in this body is 
upholding the Constitution with the moral fiber of our being.
  I thank the Presiding Officer for the recognition, and I yield the 
floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey.

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