“The most solemn power for Congress is Congress has the power to declare war, not the president.
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TK
Statements (14)
“The last thing that our country needs right now is a regime change war in Cuba based on imaginary threats to the homeland that would devastate the Cuban people and generate a man-made migration crisis.
“The right way to do it is like we did in 2013, or even in 2018. We can find a bipartisan path to do these things. So I'll oppose the unilateral effort that would put more money into agencies that could be better spent elsewhere.
“President Trump's deeply unpopular war of choice in Iran has imposed a tremendous cost on the American people—including deaths and injuries of our servicemembers and soaring gas prices. For several weeks, my colleagues and I have been forcing votes in the Senate to ensure we have a real debate about whether it's in our national interest to continue this war. I'm grateful that today, enough of my colleagues stood up for the Constitution and listened to their constituents.
“A ceasefire means bombs aren't dropping. It doesn't mean there are no hostilities. If we're using the U.S. military to blockade everything going into and out of Iran, that's still hostility.
“The blockade of Cuba has caused humanitarian crises across the island — disrupting medical care, leaving millions without clean water, and spiking food prices. Congress must assert its authority. We cannot allow the president to impose what amounts to an act of war without a single vote by the people's representatives.
“We'll have [a vote] all the weeks of this work period, including right up against the 60-day period.
“A naval blockade is an act of war under international law. The president has no authority to impose one without congressional authorization. We will force a vote. The American people did not elect one man to decide unilaterally whether to blockade the world's most critical energy chokepoint.
“We are writing to express our serious concerns about Secretary Hegseth's statements regarding the abrupt dismissals of several Judge Advocate Generals and demand legal justification and documentation of the decision-making process.
“We will have this war powers vote within the next 48 hours or so, and every member of this body will do the most solemn thing any of us ever do — vote on whether the United States should be at war.
“Has President Trump learned nothing from decades of U.S. meddling in Iran? These strikes are a colossal mistake. Wars that aren't authorized by Congress don't have clear objectives.
“For decades, our nonpartisan civil service has set us apart from other countries and enabled us to have stability and continuity no matter who is in the White House. The Trump Administration's move to reclassify federal employees to make it easier to fire them for political reasons will hurt these workers and their families, threaten our national security, and make it harder for Americans to access the services they need.
“It's time for Congress to rein in a president who is deciding to wage war on his own say-so, which is not what the Constitution allowed. If colleagues believe that a war against the narco-traffickers in the ocean or a war against Venezuela is a good idea, then put an authorization of military force on the table and debate and vote it, but don't just hand the power over to an executive.
“If that reporting is true, it's a clear violation of the DoD's own laws of war, as well as international laws about the way you treat people who are in that circumstance. It rises to the level of a war crime if it's true.