Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Congress on Thursday that President Trump does not have to comply with a law requiring presidents to seek congressional authorization to continue a war beyond 60 days because the cease-fire agreement reached with Iran has paused the clock on any such obligation.<\/p>\n
His assertion came on the eve of the 60-day mark of Mr. Trump\u2019s official notice to Congress that he had begun the war, a critical deadline under the War Powers Resolution for a president to begin to withdraw forces, seek congressional authorization to continue a military campaign or request a 30-day extension. Some Republicans have pointed to the milestone as a potential pivot point in their so far unconditional support of the war, beyond which they would demand a vote on whether to continue it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are in a cease-fire right now, which our understanding means the 60-day clock pauses, or stops, in a cease-fire,\u201d Mr. Hegseth said in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, when asked whether the White House would seek an authorization. He declined to answer if it would.<\/p>\n
Mr. Hegseth\u2019s novel reading of the statute, which some legal experts disputed, came on his second consecutive day of testimony on Capitol Hill, as the defense secretary presented a defiant and combative front to lawmakers who raised concerns about the war in Iran and his leadership.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest adversary we face at this point are the reckless naysayers and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans,\u201d he said at the opening of the hearing, echoing remarks he made before a House committee on Wednesday<\/a>.<\/p>\n He repeated the broadside as he went before lawmakers to appeal for congressional support for the Pentagon\u2019s nearly $1.45 trillion budget request for the coming year. But while the hearing was called to review the historically large request \u2014 a 40 percent increase in the military budget \u2014 it was also the first time that senators had the opportunity to publicly question Mr. Hegseth since the war began over eight weeks ago.<\/p>\n Democrats and Republicans have said for weeks that they viewed Friday as the key statutory deadline<\/a> for Mr. Trump to come to Congress if he wanted to continue the war.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to pose a really important legal question for the administration,\u201d said Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, a Democrat who has led on repeated failed attempts to curb Mr. Trump\u2019s ability to wage war without congressional approval.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have serious constitutional concerns,\u201d Mr. Kaine added.<\/p>\n Some Republicans, including Senators John Curtis of Utah and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, have signaled that they would not support a continued military campaign against Iran after the 60-day mark without congressional approval.<\/p>\n But others have made the case for giving Mr. Trump more time.<\/p>\n Representative Brian Fitzpatrick, Republican of Pennsylvania, introduced a resolution this month that would exempt from the 60-day timeline any day that is part of a cease-fire or includes negotiations to reach one.<\/p>\n Legal scholars from both sides of the ideological spectrum rejected Mr. Hegseth\u2019s assertion that a cease-fire pushes off a deadline for a president to win authorization for hostilities.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a legal stretch to say that hostilities are not ongoing when U.S. warships are blockading the Strait of Hormuz and firing on Iranian vessels,\u201d said John B. Bellinger III, a former national security legal adviser during the George W. Bush administration. \u201cThere continues to be a clear and present danger of armed conflict for U.S. forces.\u201d<\/p>\n Harold Hongju Koh, a Yale Law School professor and former State Department legal adviser during the Obama administration, rejected the idea of a \u201cstoppable clock\u201d in a law enacted expressly to limit the executive\u2019s power to go around Congress.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no pause button in the War Power Resolution,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n From the opening days of the campaign, Democrats have accused the president and his defense secretary of undertaking a war in Iran when the adversary did not pose an imminent threat.<\/p>\n They have demanded the Pentagon provide Congress with more information on the operation, which has prompted counterattacks on military and diplomatic personnel across the region and sent gas prices soaring in the United States. A handful of Republicans have voiced frustration that their questions about the costs and timeline of the war, and whether the president could deploy ground troops, went unanswered<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mr. Hegseth did not say how long the war with Iran could continue. But on several occasions he accused lawmakers of prematurely declaring the war a failure.<\/p>\n \u201cI would remind you and this group that we\u2019re two months into an effort,\u201d Mr. Hegseth said. \u201cAnd many congressional Democrats, as I pointed out, want to declare defeat.\u201d<\/p>\n It was a marked difference from the message that the president and his senior aides sent in the first days of the war when they sought to deflect the charge that Mr. Trump was entering another endless war in the Middle East by claiming it would last weeks, not months.<\/p>\n