1. United States
2. Ariz.
3. Letter

Thank you for your reply regarding Operation Epic Fury and your vote against H.Con.Res. 38. I have significant concerns with your response that I am compelled to raise. First, a basic factual error: your letter states that Operation Epic Fury resulted in the death of "Ayatollah Khomeini." Ruhollah Khomeini died in June 1989 — nearly 37 years ago. The Supreme Leader killed in this operation was Ali Khamenei, who has led Iran since 1989. I would ask that you or your staff correct this before it appears in further communications. A Congressman commenting on an active war in which American lives are being lost should have the basic facts straight. Second, your claim that the Administration is in compliance with the War Powers Act of 1973 is misleading, and I believe you know it. The Act imposes three distinct legal obligations on the President — not one. You cited only the 48-hour notification requirement — the minimum floor of the law, and the least demanding of the three. You made no mention of the requirement to consult with Congress before introducing forces into hostilities, nor of the requirement to withdraw those forces within 60 days unless Congress formally authorizes the action. Neither of those conditions has been satisfied. The clock is running. Citing the one requirement that was easy to meet while ignoring the two with actual teeth is not a good-faith reading of the law. Third, it is worth reminding you why the War Powers Act exists at all. The Founders were not subtle about their intentions. They had just fought a war to free themselves from a king who could take a nation into conflict by royal decree alone. They deliberately and explicitly vested the power to declare war in Congress — not the Executive — because they wanted that decision made by the representatives of the people who would fight and pay for it. The Commander in Chief clause was never intended as a blank check for unilateral war. It was intended to give the President operational command of forces that Congress authorizes, funds, and oversees. That lesson, written into law 53 years ago at the cost of 58,000 American lives in Vietnam alone, is now being ignored. You voted to allow President Trump to commit the full force of the United States military, exposing our troops to harm, without your or the American public’s input, at a cost of $1 billion dollars a day.The Founders wrote the Constitution expressly to avoid this, not encourage it. Consider also the precedent set by the one president who had the most unambiguous justification for immediate unilateral military action in American history. The morning after Pearl Harbor — with American blood still in the water, after an actual attack on U.S. soil — Franklin Roosevelt went to Congress and asked for a declaration of war. If FDR complied with the Constitution under those circumstances, what is the justification for not doing so now? Your constituents deserve better than a selective reading of a statute that exists for one purpose: to ensure that Congress — not the President alone — decides when this nation goes to war. I would ask that you address all three requirements of the War Powers Act in any future correspondence on this matter, and explain specifically how the Administration has satisfied each one.