{"id":13115,"date":"2026-07-22T02:07:37","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T21:07:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=13115"},"modified":"2026-07-22T02:07:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T21:07:37","slug":"hegseth-sidesteps-murkowski-question-about-backdoor-war-authorization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=13115","title":{"rendered":"Hegseth Sidesteps Murkowski Question About Backdoor War Authorization"},"content":{"rendered":"<script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n\r\n<br><div id=\"article-content\">\n            \n\n\n\n\n<p>Almost five months into President Donald Trump\u2019s war on Iran, the Trump administration still has not asked for authorization from Congress to continue hostilities. They, however, did present Congress with a supplemental request \u2014 which includes, among other things, an ask for $67.1 billion for the Department of Defense to fund Trump\u2019s war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth testified in front of the Senate Appropriations Committee Tuesday afternoon on the details of the Pentagon\u2019s request. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) used a significant portion of her time asking Hegseth if the administration plans to use an Iran war supplemental approved by Congress as a substitute for congressional authorization to continue the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<!-- \/wp:post-content -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>In 1999 \u201cthe Clinton Justice Department\u2019s Office of Legal Counsel issued an opinion holding that the supplemental appropriation itself \u2014 passed without any authorizing language \u2014 satisfied the War Powers Resolution requirement. So is the department looking to that or intending to rely on that same reasoning that funding alone can substitute for explicit congressional authorization?\u201d Murkowski asked.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Murkowski \u2014 who on <a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/emineirmakyucel.bsky.social\/post\/3moy6sosmss2k\" target=\"_blank\">several<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/emineirmakyucel.bsky.social\/post\/3mp4lic2w322k\" target=\"_blank\">occasions<\/a> voted with Senate Democrats in favor of their war powers resolutions, condemning Trump\u2019s refusal to seek congressional authorization \u2014 is referring to a theory <a href=\"https:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/news\/the-pentagon-is-setting-congress-up-for-a-vote-that-could-provide-backdoor-war-authorization\" target=\"_blank\">TPM covered extensively<\/a> at the start of the war.\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Congress approving a supplemental with money for the Iran war could allow the Trump administration to later argue that lawmakers retroactively authorized the war, legal <a href=\"https:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/news\/for-trump-emergency-cash-from-congress-means-approval-for-more-war\" target=\"_blank\">experts told TPM in March<\/a>.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>As Murkowski outlined during her time for questioning, President Bill Clinton made a similar argument about the war in Kosovo, which began absent congressional authorization. The Clinton White House argued that funding Congress passed for that conflict doubled as authorization.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Hegseth largely dodged the Alaska senator\u2019s question on Tuesday, saying he would have to \u201cdefer to our legal department\u201d on the issue.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\u201cI would have to defer to our legal department and we\u2019ll get back to you with our views on that,\u201d Hegseth said. \u201cBut as of right now, we think standalone Article Two authorities exist for us to conduct this operation on behalf of the defense of the American people. That the president has those authorities, and seeking this funding is important in pursuit of that and our $1.5 trillion budget. But I wouldn\u2019t connect the two without consulting with our legal folks first.\u201d<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->          <\/div><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n    window.fbAsyncInit = function() {\n      FB.init({\n        appId: \"101800829865996\",\n        xfbml: true,\n        version: ' v2.6'\n      });\n      window.fbAsyncInit.__didInit = true;\n    };\n    (function(d, s, id) {\n      var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];\n      if (d.getElementById(id)) {\n        return;\n      }\n      js = d.createElement(s);\n      js.id = id;\n      js.src = \"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js\";\n      fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n    }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));\n  <\/script>\r\n<br><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Almost five months into President Donald Trump\u2019s war on Iran, the Trump administration still has not asked for authorization from Congress to continue hostilities. They, however, did present Congress with a supplemental request \u2014 which includes, among other things, an ask for $67.1 billion for the Department of Defense to fund Trump\u2019s war. Defense Secretary&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13116,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2287093550.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}