Bay Area Lawmakers Stand Against War With Iran

Nearly every member of the Bay Area congressional delegation said they will be voting yes on Wednesday on a resolution authored by South Bay Rep. Ro Khanna that calls for President Donald Trump to end military action against Iran unless he seeks authorization from Congress.

The House vote comes one day after the U.S. Senate failed to pass a similar resolution cosponsored by California’s Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff.

The House resolution coauthored by Khanna and Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie also calls for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iran. While unlikely to pass —and almost certainly be vetoed by the president if it did — the resolution asserts Congress’s power to declare war under the Constitution and calls for an end to military action “unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or specific authorization for use of military force.”

Even if it fails, the resolution will symbolically force lawmakers to go on the record and take a position on the war in Iran ahead of what’s expected to be a competitive midterm election to decide the control of Congress for the second half of Trump’s term.

In remarks on the House floor on Wednesday, Khanna — a longtime opponent of foreign military intervention — framed the decision before lawmakers as not a procedural vote, but a “profoundly moral” one.

“The world needs a new moral vision. America needs a new vision. We are seeing militarism erode the soul of our nation, leading to a regime change war in Iran and utter human devastation in Gaza. Simply put, we have lost our way. We’re back to the law of the jungle, where might makes right and where the Middle East descends into a Hobbesian war of all against all,” he said.

Six American soldiers have died since military strikes began last weekend, according to the Pentagon, and nearly 800 people are believed to have been killed in Iran, including 160 children and staff at a school. Scores more have been killed across the region as the conflict spreads.

In comments on the Senate floor on Wednesday, Schiff slammed the Trump administration for not making the case for war to the American public or to Congress before it began.

“We are at war, having had no national debate over whether we should enter into war. We are at war, having no authorization by Congress, a power explicitly given by our founders to the Congress to declare war,” he said. “This resolution is about stopping that war, but it is also about reasserting Congress’s vital role as a check on the executive and the abuse of the authority to bring a nation to war.”

Among the coauthors of Khanna’s House resolution are eight Democratic members of Congress from the Bay Area: Pelosi, Oakland Rep. Lateefah Simon, Napa Rep. Mike Thompson, East Bay Reps. Mark DeSaulnier, John Garamendi and Eric Swalwell, North Bay Rep. Jared Huffman, and South Bay Rep. Zoe Lofgren.

Many of those same lawmakers cosponsoring the resolution also spoke out against the war over the weekend, in the immediate aftermath of the first American strikes. 

“There are two debates going on here,” Pelosi said on the House floor on Wednesday. “One is a debate as to the Constitution of the United States. The other is whether Iran should have a nuclear weapon, which we all agree they should not. But that doesn’t mean the Constitution of the United States should be a casualty of that because you want to take a shortcut to the war.”

Conservatives have attacked Pelosi’s position in recent days, noting that she defended former President Barack Obama’s unilateral decision to bomb Libya in 2011.

Her spokesman, Ian Krager, said there’s a difference between those limited operations in Libya and “a broader, escalating war” with Iran, and that she’s been consistent in her position that Congress should weigh in when there is the prospect of “expansive or prolonged hostilities.”

And on Wednesday, Pelosi said on the House floor that there should be a debate about the merits of the actions in Iran — after Congress asserts its power.

San José Rep. Sam Liccardo said he was troubled that the Trump administration has not clearly articulated the objectives of the war, calling such an explanation necessary both under the Constitution and morally.

Citing Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, and recent U.S. military operations in Venezuela, he said in a written statement that the American public doesn’t have the appetite for “more protracted engagement,” and called for “immediate action” from Congress on the war powers resolution.

“Trump justified last year’s attacks on Iran by claiming that he ‘obliterated’ Iran’s nuclear capabilities; if true, he wouldn’t need this year’s war to do so,” Liccardo wrote. “Trump urges regime change, yet no mere bombing campaign — no matter how horrific or brutal — can deliver that outcome. Americans deserve the truth, and Congress cannot continue to acquiesce to the unconstitutional expansion of presidential war powers.

In all, 21 California members of Congress are cosponsoring Khanna’s resolution, all Democrats. Cosponsors outside the Bay Area include: Reps. Sara Jacobs, Lou Correa, Doris Matsui, Laura Friedman, Nannette Barragan, Maxine Waters, Judy Chu, Robert Garcia, Ami Bera, Dave Min, Scott Peters and Mike Levin.

Rep. Josh Harder, whose district includes parts of the far East Bay, didn’t respond to an inquiry about his position on the resolution.