Congress Faces Its Hardest War Vote Since Vietnam
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At midnight Thursday, the sixty-day clock set by the War Powers Resolution will expire, confronting Congress with a choice it has not faced since the Vietnam era: formally authorize an ongoing American military campaign against Iran or allow it to continue in legal limbo. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spent the day before that deadline in a grueling Senate Armed Services Committee hearing defending operations that have already been underway for two months.
Constitutional law experts, according to Military.com's reporting, are unequivocal that nothing in the War Powers Resolution permits a president to sustain an unauthorized conflict beyond sixty days — a hard deadline that Congress has never meaningfully enforced since the resolution's passage in 1973. What lawmakers are being asked to sanction is substantial: the Pentagon has put the war's cost at twenty-five billion dollars, and the administration is eyeing a months-long naval blockade of Iran that could fundamentally reshape Middle East energy markets.
The Strait of Hormuz has been largely closed since the conflict began on February 28th, shutting down roughly twenty percent of global oil transit. Crude prices have surged in response, as Iran declared the U.S. naval blockade 'doomed to fail.' NATO allies are reportedly pushing back against further escalation, with Hegseth warning of 'consequences' for European partners who withhold support — echoes of the 2003 Iraq war fractures, but potentially more severe given the active disruption of global energy supplies.
The constitutional bind is acute. Congress is being asked to retroactively authorize a major campaign already in progress; a 'no' vote would effectively order a withdrawal of forces engaged in active combat. Adding to the pressure, a CENTCOM intelligence briefing on new Iran strike options was scheduled for President Trump on Thursday, suggesting the administration is preparing escalation scenarios regardless of how the congressional deadline resolves — potentially including the first combat deployment of the Dark Eagle hypersonic missile system.
For Hegseth, the hearing marked his first major Senate test as Defense Secretary, requiring him to defend decisions largely made before he took office, before lawmakers who know their votes carry direct economic and geopolitical consequences far beyond the hearing room.