Floor Speech2026-03-04

DIRECTING THE PRESIDENT PURSUANT TO SECTION 5(C) OF THE WAR POWERS RESOLUTION TO REMOVE UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES FROM UNAUTHORIZED HOSTILITIES IN THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN

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Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 41 (Wednesday, March 4, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 41 (Wednesday, March 4, 2026)] [House] [Pages H2395-H2412] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] DIRECTING THE PRESIDENT PURSUANT TO SECTION 5(C) OF THE WAR POWERS RESOLUTION TO REMOVE UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES FROM UNAUTHORIZED HOSTILITIES IN THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN Mr. MAST. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to the order of the House of March 3, 2026, I call up the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 38) directing the President pursuant to section 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution to remove United States Armed Forces from unauthorized hostilities in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House. The Clerk read the title of the concurrent resolution. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of March 3, 2026, the concurrent resolution is considered read. The text of the concurrent resolution is as follows: H. Con. Res. 38 Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), SECTION 1. FINDINGS. Congress makes the following findings: (1) Congress has the sole power to declare war under article 1, section 8, clause 11 of the United States Constitution. (2) Congress has not declared war with respect to, or provided a specific statutory authorization for, hostilities involving United States Armed Forces against the Islamic Republic of Iran. (3) Section 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution (50 U.S.C. 1544(c)) states that ``at any time that United States Armed Forces are engaged in hostilities outside the territory of the United States, its possessions and territories without a declaration of war or specific statutory authorization, such forces shall be removed by the President if Congress so directs.'' SEC. 2. TERMINATION OF THE USE OF UNITED STATES FORCES FOR HOSTILITIES AGAINST THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OR IRAN. (a) Termination.--Pursuant to section 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution (50 U.S.C. 1544(c)), Congress hereby directs the President to terminate the use of United States Armed Forces from hostilities against the Islamic Republic of Iran or any part of its government or military, unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or specific authorization for use of military force against Iran. (b) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent the United States from defending itself from imminent attack. SEC. 3. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION REGARDING INTELLIGENCE SHARING. Nothing in this joint resolution may be construed to influence or disrupt any intelligence, counterintelligence, or investigative activities relating to threats in or emanating from Iran conducted by, or in conjunction with, the United States Government involving-- [[Page H2396]] (1) the collection of intelligence; (2) the analysis of intelligence; or (3) the sharing of intelligence between the United States and any coalition partner if the President determines such sharing is appropriate and in the national security interests of the United States. SEC. 4. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION REGARDING NO AUTHORIZATION FOR USE OF MILITARY FORCE. Consistent with section 8(a)(1) of the War Powers Resolution (50 U.S.C. 1547(a)(1)), nothing in this concurrent resolution may be construed as authorizing the use of military force. The SPEAKER pro tempore. The concurrent resolution shall be debatable for 2 hours, equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs or their respective designees. The gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mast) and the gentleman from New York (Mr. Meeks) each will control 60 minutes. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Florida. General Leave Mr. MAST. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include any extraneous material on the resolution under consideration. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Florida? There was no objection. Mr. MAST. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, the Trump administration exhausted every single diplomatic effort that they could with Iran, as did previous administrations. Iran would not see reason. Operation Epic Fury is a legal and necessary exercise of Article II authority to address the imminent threat posed by Iran. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time. Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, in Donald Trump's own words and the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's own words, the United States is at war with Iran. The question is: Did Congress authorize the war as the Constitution requires? Did the President present anything before Congress? Did the Congress have any debate? Did any administrative authority come before the House Foreign Affairs Committee to testify? The answer to that is no. The question is: Was there any imminent threat requiring the use of force? The administration has not presented one. In fact, the word ``imminent'' does not appear even once in the administration's own war powers notification. Mr. Speaker, you can't find the word ``imminent.'' {time} 1510 Did the Trump administration even bother making the case to the American people or to Congress? Just 8 days ago, during the State of the Union Address, the most visible platform a President has, he could have laid out the rationale for military action, as other Presidents have. Instead, Iran was just a footnote in a record-long speech. This is a war of choice that was launched by this administration without authorization, without clearly stating objectives or a defined endgame, and without explaining how they intend to keep Americans safe. The chaos unleashed will not be borne by the President's family. It will be borne by our men and women in uniform who will face retaliation from Iran and its proxy networks. It will be borne by innocent civilians at heightened risk of attacks from Iran's aligned terrorist cells. It will be borne by American families paying more for groceries, for electricity, and for gasoline, all for Donald Trump's war of choice. Americans woke up on Saturday to the news that the United States is again at war in the Middle East. They don't know for how long because the President has not articulated a clearly defined endgame. Military action without a defined strategy invites escalation, mission creep, and failure. We should have learned this lesson already. Why? We should have learned it already from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam. As Benjamin Franklin once said: When you fail to plan, you plan to fail. This War Powers Resolution is simple. This is not a vote on Authorization for Use of Military Force. This simply demands that the President of the United States come to Congress, as our Constitution demands, to seek authorization for what he, himself, has described as a war. Just abide by the Constitution. We all bring our hands up and swear when we are sworn in and say we will abide by the Constitution. You would think that the President of the United States would do just that. This War Powers Resolution does not prevent the United States from defending itself. It does not stop the President from responding to an imminent attack. It does not limit us from protecting our troops. I have served in Congress for 28 years, and I have been in this Chamber as this body has done its most sacred and serious work deliberating whether to send our American servicemembers into harm's way. It is a difficult vote. It is a serious vote. Probably--not probably--without question, the hardest votes that I have ever had to take, but that is my responsibility. I took a pledge to the Constitution that I would follow it. I was here for the vote after 9/11 to go into Afghanistan, a heavy decision. The President brought information in. We had dialogue. We had conversation. We had debate. We did something else. In the House Foreign Affairs Committee, we had hearings. We had administration officials come in. I wasn't even the ranking member or the chair or anything else. I was just a member of the committee. I could call the administration and say: I need to speak to a Deputy Secretary or the Secretary, and they would come into my office, and we would have this dialogue to determine whether or not we were going to go into this war. Has that happened now? For over a year, for all the times, not once, not once have we had a hearing in the House Foreign Affairs Committee. We have asked to have individuals who were negotiating. Unfortunately, some of them are not employed by the State Department, et cetera, like Mr. Kushner and Mr. Witkoff, who all are friends of the President's, basically real estate negotiators who were just half an hour in Geneva, flipping back and forth from two major negotiations. If it was serious, I wouldn't have been in the White House, when the President was supposed to have been honoring individuals after we had lost the lives of six servicemembers, talking about curtains and how I redecorated the White House. This is too serious a decision for me and I would hope for the President of the United States also. Getting the facts in Iraq, the Secretary of State came before and testified, went before the U.N., talked to the American people. Now, I disagreed because I didn't see the connections after I got the information on Iraq, so I voted no. I agreed on Afghanistan. However, the point here is, the President obeyed the Constitution because he came to Congress first and allowed the Members of Congress to make a determination. What has happened year after year in my time here, I have watched Congress gradually relinquish its authority on matters of war to the executive branch. We have allowed overly broad Authorizations for the Use of Military Force to remain on the books. We have permitted Presidents of both parties to

Referenced legislation: HCONRES38, HCONRES38, HR5912, HR7380

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