WASHINGTON — Rep. Gregory W. Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has formally asked colleagues to make him the panel’s chairman when Democrats take control of the House in January, promising to bring resolutions to the floor to “immediately” end the war with Iran, Roll Call reported.
Meeks laid out the agenda in a letter Thursday seeking support for the gavel, the outlet reported. Besides the war powers votes, he promised public hearings on the Iran conflict and on the administration’s Venezuela policy, legislation focused on “clawing back Congress’s proper role in the making of American foreign policy,” and a State Department reauthorization bill that would put guardrails on the administration and protect career diplomats.
President Trump, speaking Monday in a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room after meeting with Qatar’s prime minister, said the war “militarily is effectively over,” according to the Associated Press. “We’re just keeping it the status quo,” Trump said, adding that Iran had been “decapitated” and that he still wants a long-term solution ensuring that Iran’s nuclear program is defanged, the AP reported.
Trump has acknowledged that the war caused political problems for Republicans in last week’s elections but has maintained that it was necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and has said he would make the same decision again, The National News Desk reported Monday.
“As chairman in the 120th Congress, oversight of this administration’s lawlessness and corruption will be at the top of the agenda,” Meeks wrote, according to Roll Call. “I will continue to advance a principled foreign policy grounded in our values, including support for Ukraine against Russian aggression.”
From nonbinding to binding votes
The change in power would give Meeks a different set of tools. Democrats forced repeated votes this year on war powers resolutions seeking to end the Iran war, and one sponsored by Meeks cleared both chambers, Roll Call reported. But those measures were nonbinding concurrent resolutions, because the 1973 War Powers Resolution’s fast-track procedure that the minority party can use in the House applies only to concurrent resolutions, the outlet reported. With a majority, Democrats could instead bring binding joint resolutions to the floor.
A joint resolution would still go to the president, who could veto it, and overriding a veto takes a two-thirds vote in each chamber, FindLaw’s legal analysis notes. Trump could also veto legislation scaling back operations or funding and retains his authority over the military, The National News Desk reported.
Democratic leaders have signaled they will also look to the power of the purse. “We are going to end the war. We have some Republicans already who have joined us in ending the war, and the Founding Fathers had the power of the purse as one of the ways of deterring a president who does war without the consent of the American people,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said at a news conference last Wednesday, according to The National News Desk. Congress faces a Dec. 11 government funding deadline before the new majorities are seated.
A thinner Republican bench
The Republican side of the committee is poised to lose at least a dozen members, about half its roster, to retirements and election losses, according to Roll Call. The departures include former Chairman Michael McCaul of Texas, who did not seek reelection, and Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, the House Freedom Caucus chairman, who lost his race. Rep. Young Kim of California, who chairs the East Asia and Pacific subcommittee, was trailing fellow Republican Rep. Ken Calvert in their race as of Thursday afternoon, the outlet reported.
Rep. Christopher H. Smith of New Jersey, who chairs the Africa subcommittee, lamented the turnover but predicted strong interest among remaining Republicans in filling the open seats. “There will be many who will want to be on it,” Smith told reporters, according to Roll Call. “We lost some really great people.”
Leave a Reply