The 60-day War Powers Act deadline for the Iran conflict came and went nearly two months ago, and Speaker Mike Johnson's solution is to pretend it never happened — proposing a fresh clock if fighting escalates, rather than demanding the accountability the Constitution requires.
This matters because the uniparty is laying the groundwork for another open-ended war in the Middle East. Trump launched the Iran war on Feb. 28 without congressional authorization. The administration claims an April 7 ceasefire "terminated" hostilities, nullifying the need for Congress to weigh in. But sporadic U.S. military strikes have continued, and twice in recent days the United States launched retaliatory strikes on Iran following drone attacks on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz. A ceasefire that doesn't stop the bombing isn't a ceasefire — it's a pause between sorties.
Johnson, who USA TODAY notes is a constitutional lawyer, told the outlet that if hostilities ramp up, Trump could "restart" the 60-day clock entirely. "We ended Operation Epic Fury many weeks ago, and we had been in a period of peace," Johnson said. Peace, apparently, is a relative term when American ordnance is still falling.
The Founders gave Congress the power to declare war precisely because they understood executives would always find reasons to keep fighting. The War Powers Act was meant to reinforce that check. Instead, Johnson is offering legal cover for the executive to game the clock — fight, declare a pause, restart, repeat. That's not constitutional governance; that's a treadmill for American blood and treasure.
Both chambers of Congress actually passed resolutions seeking to end the war. Then Trump excoriated lawmakers in a meeting, and the Senate reversed itself. Two Republicans changed their votes when a similar bill came to the floor. So much for the legislative branch checking executive war powers.
Johnson briefed leadership after a roughly hour-long call with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and envoy Steve Witkoff, saying "members of Congress are watching it very closely, as all Americans are." Watching is not authorizing. Briefings are not votes. The American people deserve a say — through their representatives — before another dollar is spent or another soldier is deployed to the Middle East.
Trump himself posted that the United States could be "forced to militarily complete the job." That's the language of escalation, not exit. And there's still no defined U.S. interest, no cost estimate, and no exit strategy — the three things any America First foreign policy should demand before a single boot hits the ground.
The Constitution doesn't have a reset button for wars that prove inconvenient to the legal timeline. Either Congress authorizes the use of force, or the troops come home. Anything less is the uniparty serving foreign interests at the expense of American sovereignty — and the Speaker of the House, of all people, should know that.
