New House Bill Can Block Trump’s March to War of Choice With Iran

December 13, 2018

We applaud Reps. Anna Eshoo (D-CA-18) and Walter Jones (R-NC-3) for introducing vital bipartisan legislation that would prohibit President Trump from launching a war against Iran without first obtaining Congressional authorization. J Street urges Members of Congress to support this legislation — and fulfill their constitutional obligation to act as a check on the president’s ability to take our nation into another disastrous war of choice.

The “Prevention of Unconstitutional War With Iran Act” (H.R. 7277) would deny funding to a US military operation launched against Iran without the authorization of Congress. The bill is a companion to bipartisan legislation previously introduced in the Senate by Senator Tom Udall (D-NM), which is currently co-sponsored by ten of his Senate colleagues.

President Trump and his war cabinet have repeatedly acted to increase the prospects for armed conflict with Iran. They have unilaterally violated the JCPOA nuclear agreement, undermining successful diplomacy that blocked all Iranian pathways to a nuclear weapon. They have sought to pressure US allies into abandoning their own commitments under the agreement and consistently threatened Iran with aggressive and bellicose rhetoric.

As both the House and Senate bills make clear, US violation of the nuclear agreement “risks an unnecessary conflagration with Iran through the use of sanctions against both allies and adversaries in the region and throughout the world without a clear diplomatic path for resolving the crisis absent regime change.”

J Street welcomes this bill and the principled leadership demonstrated by its sponsors. We will continue to call on Congress to live up to its constitutional responsibilities and restrain this reckless president from launching a destructive and unnecessary war. Now is the time to act — before it’s too late.