Advocacy Teams Backgrounder for 2026

The War Powers Resolution: A Means to End Unlawful Strikes

Congress passed the War Powers Resolution in 1973 to provide a framework around the division of war powers between Congress and the president. While the president has the constitutional right to use limited force to repel sudden attacks without prior Congressional approval, only Congress can declare war.  

Under Section 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution, Congress can direct the president to remove U.S. forces from hostilities that have not been authorized by Congress. This is a vital tool for Congress to reassert its constitutional war powers, end the boat strikes, and prevent war with Venezuela. 

The U.S. Is Not at War with Drug Cartels

The Trump administration has claimed that the United States is in an armed conflict – the technical term for war – with drug cartels, and that those killed in the strikes were “enemy combatants.” This is false.

The president cannot simply declare the United States to be at war with any group. An armed conflict with a non-state group requires the group to be:

1. An “organized armed group” whose actions are akin to those of the military forces of a state; and  
2. Engaged in protracted armed violence with opposing forces.

Neither of these criteria are met here. The people on these boats might be suspected of committing crimes but they are not an organized armed group that is fighting the U.S. military. These are civilian criminal suspects who are being summarily executed without due process. 

The War Powers Resolution Applies to Actions Short of War

The U.S. does not need to be engaged in a full-scale war for Congress to exercise its powers under the War Powers Resolution. When Congress passed the War Powers Resolution, they deliberately used the word “hostilities” rather than “war” or “armed conflict” because they intended for it to apply to uses of force that fell below the threshold of war. As a House report accompanying the resolution said, the word “hostilities” was used because it was “considered to be somewhat broader in scope” than armed conflict. The report went on to say that “hostilities also encompasses a state of confrontation in which no shots have been fired but where there is a clear and present danger of armed conflict.”

Given the boat strikes and military buildup around Venezuela, directing the president to remove U.S. forces from hostilities against so-called designated terrorist organizations in international waters and within Venezuela falls squarely within both the War Powers Resolution and Congress’s constitutional war powers. 

A Legislative Path Forward

Several members of Congress have introduced War Powers Resolution to variously end the strikes against civilian boats in international waters and prevent the use of force in Venezuela. Members of Congress leading on these bipartisan bills include Sens. Adam Schiff (CA), Tim Kaine (VA), Rand Paul (KY), and Reps. Ilhan Omar (MN-5), Jason Crow (CO-6), Gregory Meeks (NY-5), Jim McGovern (MA-2), Thomas Massie (KY-4).

No president, regardless of their political party, has the legal authority to engage in the premeditated killing of criminal suspects. Passing these resolutions would be a clear rebuke of the administration’s lawless strikes and warmongering. With the majority of Americans opposing the strikes, Congress must exercise its duty as the body with the authority to declare war to represent the will of the American people and vote to bring an end to these unlawful actions. 

Urge your members of Congress to support these War Powers Resolutions today!