Trump, Congress Battle Over 60-Day War Powers Deadline
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- Donald Trump declared the 1973 War Powers Act unconstitutional on Friday and sent a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate President pro tempore Chuck Grassley asserting that hostilities that began February 28, 2026 have terminated, with no exchange of fire between U.S. and Iranian forces since April 7, 2026.
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the current ceasefire pauses or stops the 60-day clock, telling senators: "We are in a ceasefire right now, which our understanding means the 60-day clock pauses, or stops, in a ceasefire."
- Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) argued the U.S. is not engaged in "active, kinetic military bombing" but is "trying to broker a peace," and warned Congress should not "get in front of the administration in the midst of these very sensitive negotiations."
- Democrats, led by the Congressional Progressive Caucus, are staggering war powers resolutions to "ripen" on a rolling basis and force repeated floor votes; two House resolutions and six Senate resolutions have already been blocked by Trump's GOP allies.
- Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) said "Trump has no plan to sustain the current conflict, no plan to transition the current Iranian government toward democracy, and no plan to de-escalate or contain the conflict from spreading throughout the region," framing the vote push as a Founding-era separation-of-powers battle.
- Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), another resolution sponsor, said Democrats hope to create a "steady stream" of war powers votes "until we get some Republicans to join us," with the strategy stretching toward the midterm elections.
- The war itself began February 28, 2026, with a ceasefire taking effect April 7, 2026 — making the 60-day War Powers Act milestone fall on Friday, May 2, the trigger for the current legislative clash.
Why it matters: With the conflict now two months old and voters souring, the war powers fight hands Democrats a recurring floor-vote weapon to keep the unpopular campaign in the headlines through the midterms. Republicans' twin defenses — denying this counts as a "war" and claiming the ceasefire paused the clock — face a direct counter from Trump himself, who escalated by calling the underlying statute unconstitutional, a legal posture that could outlast the Iran conflict and reshape presidential war authority regardless of how the fighting ends.
