MEDIA RECAP: As Congress Returns To Washington, Barrett Leads AUMF To Limit Conflict In Iran
Washington, D.C. — As Congress prepares to return to Washington this week, Congressman Tom Barrett is leading an Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) to provide a clear and defined mission objective, limit the scope of approved military action, and establish a firm deadline for the conflict in Iran. Barrett is the first member of Congress to introduce legislation formally authorizing the conflict while ensuring it does not spiral into another endless war in the Middle East.
Specifically, his AUMF would give President Trump congressional authority until July 30th to successfully demolish, degrade, or defeat the nuclear weapons program of Iran and its proxies without putting American boots on the ground or engaging in nation-building.
See below for some coverage of this significant proposal:
Michigan U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett introduced legislation in Congress Thursday morning that would authorize military operations in Iran but limit their scope and impose a 90-day deadline to end the war, saying the president can't continue to wage war overseas without involving Congress.
“I think we're very close to a breakthrough in Iran. That's my hope and continued prayer that we're able to do that,” Barrett told The Detroit News. “But I also believe that Congress has a role in authorizing this if that's the will of the people.”
Mr. Barrett, whose deployments over more than two decades in the military included Iraq and Kuwait, said that Congress needed to assert its constitutional authority to ensure the current operations in the Middle East had more clearly defined mission objectives and deadlines than previous conflicts.
“If we don’t learn from our foreign policy failures of the past, we are bound to repeat them,” he said.
[Speaker] Johnson may have survived … [a] politically painful Department of Homeland Security shutdown just before Congress left town, but the speaker will return to Washington with a long to-do list.
Rep. Tom Barrett (R-Mich.) introduced an Authorization for Use of Military Force on Thursday that would require Trump to end U.S. military involvement in Iran by July 30, the latest sign of growing Republican unease with the conflict.
[Barrett’s] move is remarkable, since virtually all Republicans have stood behind Trump throughout the Iran War, arguing both that the conflict was justified, in the name of national security, and that the president had the power to initiate it without congressional approval.
Rep. Tom Barrett, R-Mich., introduced a resolution Thursday that would authorize the war through the end of July to permanently degrade Iran’s nuclear program, address “imminent threats,” enforce a naval blockade and ensure safe passage of U.S. ships through the Strait of Hormuz.
But the measure would also set stringent guidelines on prolonged military operations by limiting boots on the ground and prohibiting "nation-building" or occupying or seizing Iranian territory.
Michigan Republican Rep. Tom Barrett … is attempting to stake a new path on the Iran issue that would empower the president but forbid a lengthy engagement.
The bill would block the military from pursuing “sustained ground combat operations in Iran” and also from “engaging in nation-building, stabilization operations, or the establishment of long-term security governance within Iran.”
Barrett, a 22-year veteran who deployed to Iraq and Kuwait, said his legislation is an effort to prevent the U.S. from being dragged into “another endless war.”
“The commander in chief has the sole authority to lead our troops in wartime, but I’ve lost too many friends on the battlefield to allow that to happen without Congress exercising its constitutional role to clearly define the mission with safeguards and a deadline,” he said in a statement Thursday.
The text also greenlights U.S. operations in four specific areas: dismantling Iran’s nuclear weapons program; continuing the blockade of Iranian ports; the safe passage of vessels through the Strait of Hormuz; and the ability to counter “imminent threats” to U.S. sites or forces.
Bigger picture. The timing of the measure is also notable — it comes nearly a week after Trump certified to Congress that the White House considers hostilities with Iran as “terminated.”
But days later, U.S. and Iranian forces traded fire over now-paused American operations to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz, raising questions about whether the fragile ceasefire between the two nations would hold.
The AUMF marks one of the most concrete actions by congressional Republicans thus far to limit U.S. operations against Iran, and may preview further action by Republicans wary of the undefined and unclear scope of and plans for U.S. action against Iran. Senate Republicans are working on a similar AUMF effort.
The release made clear that during the period of the AUMF U.S. forces can destroy Iran's nuclear weapons program, address imminent threats and enforce a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz while prohibiting the use of ground forces for any purpose other than rescue missions and intelligence collection, any attempts at nation-building or establishing long-term governance, or moving to occupy or seize Iranian territory.
The resolution comes as a legal dispute surrounds the status of U.S. military operations in Iran. The Trump administration submitted a report to Congress on May 1 stating that military operations had concluded; the same day the War Powers Resolution’s 60-day authorization deadline expired. But Barrett’s office says U.S. military actions are ongoing, creating, in Barrett’s view, a legal gray area that Congress has a constitutional obligation to address.
“This is an important constitutional protection that Congress has the authority to declare war. And by extension of that, Congress has the authority to designate how we go about the use of force,” Barrett said.
President Trump notified Congress of military action against Iran on March 2, giving him until May 1 to use force in the region before further congressional approval was required. On May 1, the president reported to Congress that military force had ended. However, military operations are still ongoing.
Barrett said: “They’re trying to claim that … this initial 60 day window that they ended that mission and started a new one. I don’t accept that, frankly, because you know, the same effort is underway today as it was two weeks ago. Before that 60-day limit had been encountered. I would love if … we could have done this in a clean way, to roll from one or provide congressional authorization or have some guardrails put in place.”
“Having spent more than 20 years in the Army, my entire career was really spent during that 20-year-long Global War on Terror,” he said Thursday. “I felt this was an important protection to have, that we go forward with a clearly defined objective, prevent or degrade the Iranians ability to develop or use a nuclear weapon, but not an endless conflict that will take another 20 years and another generation of Americans to go fight for.”
CLICK HERE to read Barrett’s Authorization for Use of Military Force.