FAS

Congressional Authority to Limit Military Operations

07.18.07 | 2 min read | Text by Steven Aftergood

Does Congress have the constitutional authority to legislate limits on the conduct of the war in Iraq?

The answer may seem obvious. But to resolve any lingering doubt, the Congressional Research Service gave the topic a thorough analytic treatment in a newly updated report (pdf) and concluded that Congress does have such authority.

“It has been suggested that the President’s role as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces provides sufficient authority for his deployment of troops, and any efforts on the part of Congress to intervene could represent an unconstitutional violation of separation-of-powers principles.”

“While even proponents of strong executive prerogative in matters of war appear to concede that it is within Congress’s authority to cut off funding entirely for a military operation, it has been suggested that spending measures that restrict but do not end financial support for the war in Iraq would amount to an ‘unconstitutional condition’.”

To rebut any such suggestion, the newly updated CRS report “provides historical examples of measures that restrict the use of particular personnel, and concludes with a brief analysis of arguments that might be brought to bear on the question of Congress’s authority to limit the availability of troops to serve in Iraq.”

“Although not beyond debate, such a restriction appears to be within Congress’s authority to allocate resources for military operations,” the report stated.

See “Congressional Authority To Limit U.S. Military Operations in Iraq,” updated July 11, 2007.

See, relatedly, “Defense: FY2008 Authorization and Appropriations” (pdf), updated July 13, 2007.

and “FY2007 Supplemental Appropriations for Defense, Foreign Affairs, and Other Purposes” (pdf), updated July 2, 2007.

publications
See all publications
Emerging Technology
day one project
Policy Memo
Kickstarting Collaborative, AI-Ready Datasets in the Life Sciences with Government-funded Projects

The research community lacks strategies to incentivize collaboration on high-quality data acquisition and sharing. The government should fund collaborative roadmapping, certification, collection, and sharing of large, high-quality datasets in life science.

01.02.25 | 6 min read
read more
Education & Workforce
day one project
Policy Memo
Launch the Next Nuclear Corps for a More Flexible Nuclear Regulatory Commission

The potential of new nuclear power plants to meet energy demand, increase energy security, and revitalize local economies depends on new regulatory and operational approaches at the NRC.

01.02.25 | 6 min read
read more
Emerging Technology
day one project
Policy Memo
Ready for the Next Threat: Creating a Commercial Public Health Emergency Payment System

In anticipation of future known and unknown health security threats, including new pandemics, biothreats, and climate-related health emergencies, our answers need to be much faster, cheaper, and less disruptive to other operations.

12.23.24 | 5 min read
read more
Emerging Technology
day one project
Policy Memo
From Strategy to Impact: Establishing an AI Corps to Accelerate HHS Transformation

To unlock the full potential of artificial intelligence within the Department of Health and Human Services, an AI Corps should be established, embedding specialized AI experts within each of the department’s 10 agencies.

12.23.24 | 10 min read
read more