WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski says it’s time for Congress to assert its authority over the war against Iran.
“I do not accept that we should engage in open-ended military action without clear direction or accountability,” she said in a speech on the Senate floor Thursday. “Congress has a role. Congress has to step up and fulfill that role, that obligation that the Constitution assigns to us.”
Murkowski has voted against six Democratic resolutions to immediately end the war, saying an abrupt withdrawal was not a good strategic move. She plans to introduce an Authorization for the Use of Military Force, an AUMF, which she said will be both an authorization and a limit.
“An AUMF recognizes the reality that the U.S. military is already engaged and provides structure and clarity by requiring the administration to define what we're trying to achieve and the means of achieving it,” she said. “It requires reporting to Congress. And it brings transparency where little has existed over the past two months.”
Murkowski's legislation, which may come as soon as next week, could be the most concrete step yet by a Republican senator to place limits on the Trump administration's prosecution of the war. A few Republicans in Congress have raised concerns about the cost and what they say is a lack of information from the administration about the strategy, but how many will join her effort remains to be seen.
Her floor speech came on a day that revealed a gap between Murkowski and Alaska’s other senator.
Sen. Dan Sullivan, at a hearing with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, raised no concerns about the war or Congress’s constitutional role in authorizing one. He said he supports the administration’s record-high budget request for the military.
“Mr. Secretary, I mentioned it in the classified hearing today, but I do think the $1.5 trillion top line is historic,” he said. “It meets the needs.”
Sullivan praised the administration for requesting money to modernize Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. He also drew attention to Russian and Chinese incursions in the North and made a pitch for the Defense Department to lend support to an Alaska gas pipeline. He asked no questions about the war except to point out that the U.S. did not intentionally target civilians in an airstrike that destroyed a school in Iran.
Sullivan did not respond to an interview request or to say whether he planned to support Murkowski’s Iran war authorization.
