An open letter to the U.S. Congress

No Iran war money without a sunset, objectives, and an exit

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No Iran war money without an authorization that has a sunset, objectives, and exit criteria Before September 30 you will vote on money for the Iran war, whether as a supplemental, a reconciliation bill, or a line in a continuing resolution. Congress has twice directed the president to end this war and has never authorized it. The vote on the money is the only check the Constitution gives you that a veto cannot undo. This is not a partisan complaint. Presidents of both parties have worked around the War Powers Resolution: Kosovo in 1999, Libya in 2011, Yemen in 2024. What is different this year is the scale, and the fact that whoever wins in 2028 will inherit the rule you leave in place this month. Fix it now, while the case can be made from both sides of the aisle. Please do three things. 1. Vote no on any Iran war funding that is not paired with an authorization for the use of military force containing a sunset date, stated objectives, exit criteria, casualty accounting, and a report to Congress every 30 days on operations conducted and the legal authority for each. Bipartisan proposals already introduced in both chambers have this structure. 2. Define "hostilities" in the War Powers Resolution to include the use or threat of armed force, a naval blockade, and any deployment where hostilities are likely, so that no administration can declare a war over while enforcing a blockade. 3. Make the 60-day funding cutoff automatic. When the clock expires without authorization, funds for the operation stop unless Congress votes to continue them. The president should need your affirmative act to keep going, which is what the Constitution intended. None of these binds one party. Each would have constrained the last three presidents and will constrain the next one. In 1973 Congress ended the bombing of Cambodia by declining to pay for it. That tool is still in your hands. These provisions follow the defense section of the Rational Foundation Plan: rules-not-rulers.org/defense-national-security.

▶ Created on September 6 by Progressive Mandate

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