Dems Have an Opportunity to Force an End to the Iran War. Will They Take It?

Background. The United States and Iran have had an adversarial relationship since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which ended decades of close US–Iranian ties under the Pahlavi monarchy — ties that had been reinforced by the 1953 CIA- and MI6-backed coup that restored Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to power after the elected government of Mohammad Mosaddegh was overthrown. The 1979 hostage crisis, in which 52 American diplomats were held for 444 days, severed formal diplomatic relations, which have never been fully restored.

Subsequent decades saw recurring cycles of confrontation: US support for Iraq during the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988), designation of Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism, and escalating sanctions. The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), negotiated under President Obama, temporarily constrained Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief, but President Trump withdrew the US from the agreement in 2018 and reimposed sweeping sanctions under a "maximum pressure" policy. The Biden administration attempted but failed to revive the JCPOA. Iran responded to the pressure campaign by accelerating uranium enrichment, bringing it closer to weapons-grade levels.

The War Powers Resolution of 1973 was enacted by Congress over President Nixon's veto specifically to constrain executive war-making authority following the undeclared wars in Korea and Vietnam. It requires the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of committing armed forces to hostilities and limits unauthorized engagements to 60 days. Every president since its passage has disputed its constitutionality, and no president has formally acknowledged its binding authority, though Congress has periodically invoked it — most notably in debates over US involvement in Yemen, Libya, and Syria.

The use of appropriations riders to restrict military action has historical precedent: the Cooper–Church Amendment (1970) and the Boland Amendments (1982–1984) used spending restrictions to limit executive military operations in Southeast Asia and Central America, respectively. Government shutdown threats as legislative leverage have also recurred, most prominently in 1995–1996, 2013, and 2018–2019.