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Congressional Daily Record
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April 30, 2026
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Download official Senate Record PDFReturn to issue contextMr. BOOKER. Mr. President, I am grateful to have this opportunity, and it really is about the fact that very soon, my colleague from California Adam Schiff will be bringing another War Powers Resolution to the floor.
we are going to continue to bring these War Powers Resolutions to the floor. And why? Clearly, we know the outcome of the vote. Why are we doing this? Well, we are doing this because it has almost been a month now that this Nation has been at war. In fact, we are coming up to that very 60-day mark. And we are a nation that has now pledged tens of billions of dollars we have spent in an overseas war where 14 servicemembers have died, where hundreds more have been injured, where our President has given multiple different reasons for going into this war, and none of them have been achieved. In other words, there has been no regime change—the regime is more extreme; their incredible race towards highly enriched fissile material is still there in their country; and we are seeing a nation that is still showing military capabilities.
low-cost drones, they are still able to inflict a lot of damage to their neighbors, to our allies. And they have closed the Strait of Hormuz—something that was not going on before but has caused a global oil shock that is hurting Americans at home. Tens of billions of taxpayer dollars—Americans spending hundreds, if not thousands of dollars—all to support President Trump's folly—costly, tragic folly.
And what do we do? We are bringing these War Powers Resolutions to the floor to force this body not to treat this like another normal day. American soldiers are in the line of fire. This is not normal that a President for almost 60 days has been able to conduct a war with this body being silent on it. In fact, today, we are having our first ever hearing with the Secretary of Defense, and he is saying that this war is going well. Well, by what account?
The American people are against this war. The American people are paying the price for this war. American soldiers are dying for this war. Hundreds more have been injured for this war. We see a crisis in the Middle East that is growing and not subsiding.
an ill-gotten war, a war that has pulled us into further and deeper crisis, yet another quagmire in the Middle East.
I want to make a couple of points. The War Powers Act says that a President can act in defense of this Nation if it is an imminent threat. We have not seen that. But many people have been saying that the reason why he doesn't need to come to this body for a declaration of war is because of the War Powers Act.
which I say it was not there, but let's assume for argument's sake that there was an imminent threat to the United States of America that this President had to act upon. That would have triggered 60 days.
Senate should be waiting for the President to ask for 30 more days. That is one of the two choices according to the legislation, the law of the United States of America. But just moments ago, in an open hearing, we had the Secretary of Defense say: Well, no, no, no, that 60 days is paused because we are in a cease-fire.
That is illogical and not in alignment with the law of our land. We have an active military blockade going on. That is actually an act of war by our own laws and regulations. We have an area of this nation— the Strait of Hormuz—under a blockade, an act of war. It is demanding aircraft carrier groups. It is demanding thousands of U.S. soldiers engaged and on the frontline.
Congress after 60 days. To use that as some kind of escape valve to further escape scrutiny, debate, oversight, accountability to this body is unacceptable.
the Senator from Alaska, the Senator from North Carolina, the Senator from Maine, many of my colleagues, the Senator from Utah—say that the 60 days, to them, matters.
So here is a bipartisan conclusion. We are about to go out on a recess. The question is, What will we do as a body when the President has not come forward after 60 days of this military conflict to ask for any kind of authority?
This was not the constitutional demand of our Nation. This is not the law that we have sworn an oath to uphold. This is insanity that we—the most powerful deliberative body in the world that has a constitutional obligation where war powers sit with us—for us to do nothing, not to demand that the President come before us and make his case and let there be a vote of whether we declare war or not. We are at war. Sixty days have passed, and we are still doing nothing.
to force this body to confront this failing war where we are losing American soldiers; where hundreds have been injured; where we are spending tens of billions of dollars; where the regime is more radical and more extreme; when they still have the highly enriched fissile material in their country; where they have new capabilities that have been exposed, like their ability to cause havoc with low-cost drones; and where they have now choked the Strait of Hormuz, causing shocks around the country. And we are doing nothing? That is unacceptable.
I want to make this last point. Donald Trump has engaged us in this war to stop them from getting a nuclear weapon. But remember that in 2015, we had the JCPOA. We had our NATO allies, European allies, Russia, China, and Iran all agreeing that Iran would, No. 1, ship out of country their highly enriched uranium, which they did; that all of their enrichment facilities, from Natanz to Fordow, would be open to snap inspections and constant surveillance, which it was; that their mining
which it was. Iran's ability to enrich uranium over a certain amount was stopped.
moment, Iran raced to enrich uranium that put them closer and closer to breakout, and that was the pretext that Donald Trump said he invaded. It was one of the many pretexts of what he said is the reason why he started this war.
to negotiate some way to get back to many of the same aspects of that very deal. This is what the President has done. He created the crisis, declared war to stop the crisis he created, and still has not solved that crisis. This is the great dealmaker. This is the person that said they would keep us out of wars like this that has gotten us into those wars. And now we have no off-ramp, while Americans are suffering with higher prices, higher costs, and billions of dollars of taxpayer money that could be used to reduce the deficit, reduce prescription drug costs, reduce the cost of health insurance or other things that are high priorities for Americans.
vote. My colleague Adam Schiff will bring forward a War Powers Resolution.
This is a sad moment for this body. Sixty days is about to pass, and we are doing nothing to demand any kind of oversight, any kind of accountability, or even following the War Powers Act by the letter of the law. We are allowing the President to flaunt our Constitution, to flaunt our laws. The only thing necessary for the Constitution to be so trashed and broken is for the good people of this body to do nothing.
We are about to celebrate 250 years of our Nation's history. When the Constitution was created, this body was created, as Federalist Papers No. 47 says, to be a check on our President, to ensure that they don't overstep their powers, to assure that they don't abuse their office. That is the constitutional calling for this body.
with their lives. The least we could be doing here in this body is upholding the Constitution with the moral fiber of our being.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey.