Rapid U.S. Military Operation in Iran Hasn’t Sparked Quick Response by Congress

U.S. forces are racing to target Iranian military assets as war swells in the Middle East in the wake of the Trump administration’s weekend strike on Iran’s top leadership.

Congress is not moving quite so quickly — and lawmakers are losing their patience.

Sen. Mark Warner, vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told reporters on Monday that he still had a number of outstanding questions about the military operation.

“So far, Congress has been basically — not basically, totally — irrelevant, because we’ve not used our power,” Warner said.

The administration notified the Gang of Eight — the top leaders of both chambers and their Intelligence committees — ahead of the strike, and briefed them again Monday afternoon, alongside the leaders of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees and top appropriators in both chambers. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and CIA Director John Ratcliffe participated. A larger briefing for all senators and House members is planned for Tuesday.

As the top Democrat on the Intelligence panel, Warner was part of that group, but after the second session said, “I think we should’ve been called back on Saturday.”

“There absolutely was an imminent threat,” Rubio told reporters ahead of the Monday briefing. “We went proactively in a defensive way to prevent them from inflicting higher damage.”

Rubio said that the administration has “compiled with the law 100%,” and that they notified members of Congress within 48 hours, referring to the Gang of Eight briefing.

“We just can’t notify 535 people. That’s not possible,” he said.

The House is not scheduled to return until Wednesday and is slated to leave town after voting Thursday. That vote series is expected to include a vote on a war powers resolution led by Republican Rep. Thomas Massie and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, which would assert Congress’ authority to block President Donald Trump’s military campaign in Iran.

Speaker Mike Johnson told Republican lawmakers that he cancelled Friday votes to honor Democrats’ request to attend Jesse Jackson’s funeral. The House is not in session next week as Republicans attend their annual retreat at Trump’s golf resort in Doral, Florida.

The Senate returned Monday evening. The upper chamber will take up a war powers resolution, introduced by Sens. Tim Kaine and Rand Paul, this week. The vote has not yet been officially scheduled, but Kaine said he anticipates it will likely occur Tuesday evening or Wednesday. The Senate resolution is widely expected to fail, facing near unanimous Republican opposition. Democratic Sen. John Fetterman has also said he will vote “no.”

“I think Democrats are very anxious to have this vote, and Republicans are very anxious to avoid the vote,” Kaine told NOTUS.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Monday that Kaine and Paul’s resolution would get a vote later this week and members of Congress would be able to weigh in on the Iran operation. Still, Thune added that the Trump administration was justified in launching the attacks.

“What this administration has done is consistent with what previous administrations have done,” Thune said. “There have been similar circumstances in which they were responding to what is perceived to be a national security issue that needs to be addressed, or a threat that needs to be responded to, and I think that’s what this represents.”

Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy said he opposes voting on any measures before the Senate debates the war in Iran.

“I don’t believe we should be pretending that business is normal right now, and moving to a housing bill, which I support, until we get a commitment to have a debate, a real debate, on a war authorization,” Murphy said.

Just as Congress hasn’t rushed to vote on war powers, it also has not scrambled to receive an official briefing.

But Democratic senators who attended the session Monday evening said their questions about the operation weren’t answered sufficiently. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters after the briefing that the information provided by the Trump administration was inadequate.

“A whole lot of questions were asked. I found their answers were completely and totally insufficient,” Schumer said. “In fact, at least to me that briefing raised many more questions than it answered.”

NOTUS asked Republican Sen. Josh Hawley if the administration had moved quickly enough to brief Congress. He said: “They’re briefing us tomorrow, so that’s good.”

But when NOTUS followed up to ask whether that’s fast enough, Hawley hesitated. “Well, that’s what’s on offer, so I’ll take it,” he said.

Without a briefing, Hawley and many other Republicans dodged taking firm positions on the U.S. attacks, pleading ignorance.

“I’m not going to comment on any of these comments because I’m going to have a unique opportunity — about a 100 of us in the Senate — to hear from the secretary of state, the secretary of defense and others,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski said. “And I think it’s important for me to listen to what they present to us and not be commenting on statements that have been made.”

Still, many insisted that the administration was in legal compliance by notifying Congress before launching a war. Under Article 1 of the Constitution, Congress has the authority to declare war. According to the War Powers Act, the president must consult Congress before committing troops into foreign conflict and notify Congress within 48 hours of doing so.

It’s a dynamic that has played out throughout much of Trump’s second term, with the president taking historic actions without seeking congressional buy-in, and then demanding unfaltering support from Republicans on Capitol Hill. Trump has mostly gotten his way, and NOTUS’ initial conversations with Republican lawmakers indicate that even a ballooning conflict in the Middle East is unlikely to disrupt that pattern.

Johnson told reporters after the briefing Monday that the operation did not require approval from Congress because it wasn’t a declaration of war. He added that the campaign was “defensive in nature,” and therefore communication with Congress could have compromised security.

“The president was acting well within his authority,” Johnson said. “The idea that we could take the ability of our commander in chief, the president, to take his authority away right now to finish this job, is a frightening aspect to me. It’s dangerous.”

But Johnson acknowledged that there are still a number of outstanding questions for lawmakers.

“There are more details to be determined, how long the operation goes and what the need is, but our appropriators certainly asked that question,” Johnson said.

Meanwhile, the stakes are rising rapidly. At least six U.S. service members have been killed and nearly 20 have been wounded in retaliatory attacks, according to U.S. officials, as missiles and drones bombard targets across the region. Civilian casualties are climbing in multiple countries, and oil markets have been rattled by fears of disruption to Persian Gulf shipping routes.

Trump said the campaign could last four to five weeks, or possibly longer, and he has not ruled out deploying troops on the ground. What began as a strike on Iran from the U.S. and Israel now risks pulling in other regional players, including Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal told NOTUS on Monday that he still has a number of questions for the administration, three days after the operation began.

“I have a ton of questions. Like, ‘What’s our objective? What’s our main objective? How do we accomplish regime change from 30,000 feet?” Blumenthal said. “They provided us with almost zero information.”

Blumenthal said he wished Congress had returned to session over the weekend.

“This war is ongoing,” Blumenthal added. “American troops are dying. Congress ought to do its job.”