U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued the below statement after today’s passage of S.J. Res 68, which orders the President to terminate U.S. Armed Forces hostilities against the Islamic Republic of Iran immediately, unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or specific authorization for use of military force.

“The power to declare war is granted to Congress alone. Today, I joined a bipartisan majority of Senators to reassert this solemn duty at a time when the President’s actions have heightened tensions between the U.S. and Iran without any long-term strategy, and provoked tit-for-tat responses that threaten to bring us to the brink of a war that Americans have neither debated nor approved. 

“As I wrote in 2018, since the 2001 and 2002 Authorizations for the Use of Military Force, we have seen the war powers of Presidents continually expand with dangerous implications. For several decades now, Congress has gradually ceded its war authority to the executive branch and now risks losing what authority remains. Our troops and their families deserve a public debate over the precise scope of their mission if we’re asking them to put their lives on the line. This resolution ensures that Congress has the necessary debate to fulfill its Constitutionally-mandated responsibility to decide when war is an appropriate course of action for our nation.”