Sponsors and supporters of bipartisan resolutions aimed at limiting US President Donald Trump’s power to attack Iran are strongly urging Congress to back the measures when they’re up for votes later this week, with some observers evoking the specter of the Iraq quagmire as a warning against yet another protracted and illegal war.
Anticipating Trump’s June 2025 attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities and scientists, Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) introduced H.Con.Res.38, which directs the president to “remove United States armed forces from unauthorized hostilities” against Iran. The measure has 83 other co-sponsors, all of them Democrats.
In the upper chamber, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) also introduced a war powers resolution, S.J.Res.59, last June.
“As a principled opponent of military adventurism since America’s 2003 invasion of Iraq, I was devastated this weekend when we learned that once again, American service members will be coming home in body bags,” Khanna wrote in an opinion piece published Tuesday by Fox News.
Lawmakers should have no doubt that this will be their equivalent of the Iraq War vote. https://t.co/RTnPfquTIL
— Dylan Williams (@dylanotes) March 3, 2026
“Trump announced: ‘There will likely be more before it ends. That’s the way it is,’” Khanna added. “No. That’s not the way it is. That must not be the way it is. As Trump now refuses to rule out sending ground troops to Iran, I believe we must do everything in our power to stop this horrific war of choice before more Americans are killed.”
At least six US troops and, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society, nearly 800 Iranians have been killed since Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched the war on Saturday.
“The Constitution says we’re not supposed to be at war without a vote of Congress,” Kaine told NPR. “This is important. The lives of our troops are at risk. We ought to come back to Washington right away and vote on this.”
As every single democrat in the universe should.
The resolutions had been scheduled for debate and votes before Trump ordered the attack on Iran. With the war underway, some observers doubt whether passage of the measures would be an effective curb on the president’s military campaign. If passed, Congress would likely have to vote on overriding Trump’s anticipated vetoes, with an all-but-impossible two-thirds majority needed in both chambers.
The War Powers Resolution of 1973 – also known as the War Powers Act—requires the president to notify lawmakers within 48 hours of committing troops to military action, and limits such action to 60 days, with a 30-day withdrawal period, unless Congress declares war or issues an authorization for the use of military force.
On Tuesday, six House Democrats – members of a faction that was reportedly working to thwart votes on the two resolutions – introduced a competing war powers resolution that would give Trump a month to continue the war without congressional approval.
“Of course Democrats who raced to applaud Trump’s illegal war in Iran—and in one case was pardoned by him – would draft a pro-war war powers resolution meant to sabotage the real war powers resolution receiving a vote this week,” Demand Progress senior policy adviser Cavan Kharrazian said in response to the reporting.
Numerous groups are imploring Congress to pass the two original resolutions.
“President Trump – and Congress if it does not act to stop him – has effectively ceded American war-making authority to indicted war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu and dragged our nation into an unconstitutional war,” Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) government affairs director Robert McCaw said Tuesday. “That is not self-defense. That is executive submission to Israel’s regional ambitions and warmongering.”
“Six American service members are dead. More than 180 Iranian schoolchildren and teachers have been killed along with hundreds of others, as well as people in various countries,” McCaw continued. “These are not abstractions. These are human beings lost in a war Congress never authorized and the American people never wanted.”
“No president has the authority to start a war without congressional authorization for the benefit of a foreign government,” he added. “The Constitution does not delegate war-making authority to foreign governments. It vests that power in Congress, and Congress must stop this war.”
Amid a massive anti-Iraq war movement in 2003, 72% of people in the U.S. still supported going to war.Today, even without an overwhelming anti-war movement, only 18% of people support war against Iran.This war is senseless, illegal, and unpopular. End it now.
— Institute for Policy Studies (@ips-dc.org) 2026-03-03T13:02:06.831Z
Lisa Gilbert, co-president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, said after Trump launched the attack on Iran that “the president who so pathetically claims to be deserving of a Nobel Peace Prize has launched a deadly and unconstitutional regime change war.”
“There is no congressional declaration of war nor authorization for the use of force in Iran, making Trump’s actions transparently unconstitutional and illegal,” Gilbert continued. “Importantly, Trump’s actions in Iran would be illegal under international law even if there were congressional authorization. Iran poses no imminent security threat to the United States.”
“Exactly like the Iraq War Trump untruthfully claimed to have opposed, this is a war of choice driven by arrogance and imperial ambition,” she added. “And exactly like the Iraq War, the risks are manifold – with needless short-term deaths inevitable and long-term consequences unknowable.”
“Congress must act immediately to end this illegal and unconstitutional aggression,” Gilbert stressed.
The progressive political action group Our Revolution said in an email that “Trump’s illegal war with Iran is spiraling out of control – and Congress has only hours left to slam on the brakes.”
“It could not be clearer that Trump has dragged us into a war with no endgame, no congressional debate, and no concern for who gets killed,” the group added. “But with the House and Senate vote… we have a crucial chance to stop another forever war.”
At the peace group Win Without War, deputy director Shayna Lewis said that “this war is flatly illegal – neither authorized by Congress, nor justified under any international law.”
“Trump has similarly failed to make his case to the US public in any way,” Lewis noted. “Instead, he has capriciously upended critical diplomatic negotiations to ignite a major, open-ended, region-wide war.”
“While Trump has tried to portray himself as an ally to brave protesters in Iran facing grave violence, the Iranian government’s horrific record does not justify this reckless push to war,” she contended. “We know from decades of tragic US-led interventions that bombs do not deliver peace and freedom to people struggling under brutal regimes.”
“Congress must convene immediately and end this illegal war,” Lewis added. “This week both the House and Senate will have yet another chance at passing war powers resolutions to rein in our out-of-control president. They owe it to their constituents, their constitutional duty, and people across the globe to vote yes.”
