Two Bay Area members of Congress have proposed two new measures to mandate congressional approval for U.S. military action against Iran, in the wake of President Donald Trump authorizing U.S. forces to kill Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike in Iraq last Thursday.
Soleimani, the leader of Iran’s Quds Force, was widely viewed as the nation’s second-most-powerful person behind Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
On Sunday, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) announced a resolution to halt U.S. armed forces from hostilities against Iran without congressional approval. In a separate measure, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-San Jose) introduced a bill to block funding for military force against Iran without approval from Congress.
Omar and Lee’s resolution, a companion to a war powers resolution authored by Sen. Tim Kaine, would require any hostilities against Iran to be authorized by Congress through a declaration of war or authorization of military force.
“The assassination of any official of another country is against any kind of foreign policy that we should have as a country,” Lee told KQED on Monday. “[Soleimani] was not a good man. Everyone understands that. He has committed horrible, horrible crimes. That’s not the issue. This president did not come to Congress. He did not receive authorization, nor did he consult with Congress.”
In a letter to House Democrats on Sunday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House will vote this week on Lee and Omar’s resolution, which would require military hostilities against Iran to end within 30 days if Congress does not grant approval.
“We are concerned that the Administration took this action without the consultation of Congress and without respect for Congress’s war powers granted to it by the Constitution,” Pelosi said in the letter. Still, the bill states it would not prevent the administration from defending itself from an imminent attack.
In justifying the drone strike, President Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and others cited evidence that Soleimani was planning an “imminent attack on Americans.”
Rep. Lee said she’s skeptical of that evidence, and pushed for it to be made public.
“The Pentagon said in their statement that this was to prevent further acts. If they’re talking about further acts, one has to assume that the ‘imminent’ threat is questionable,” Lee said. “And that’s why it’s important that we see the intelligence, and that they come to Congress and disclose and de-classify the information. We need to demand an answer from this administration immediately.”
