{"database": "openregs", "table": "congressional_record", "rows": [["CREC-2026-03-02-pt1-PgS739", "2026-03-02", 119, 2, null, null, "WAR POWERS RESOLUTION", "SENATE", "SENATE", "ALLOTHER", "S739", "S740", "[{\"name\": \"Peter Welch\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}]", null, "172 Cong. Rec. S739", "Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 39 (Monday, March 2, 2026)\n\n[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 39 (Monday, March 2, 2026)]\n[Senate]\n[Pages S739-S740]\nFrom the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]\n\n                         WAR POWERS RESOLUTION\n\n  Mr. WELCH. Mr. President, we must act. The President has made a\ndecision unilaterally without consultation of Congress to start yet\nanother war in the Middle East. It is a reckless decision that is very\ndetrimental to the well-being of our country and very threatening to\nthe Constitution.\n  There are three issues that are absolutely essential to consider by\nthis Congress. First of all, No. 1, America does not want this war. And\nI trust the American people. The reason America does not want this war\nis they have seen it before. They saw it in Iraq where the\njustification was weapons of mass destruction. They saw it in\nAfghanistan where the justification was getting rid of the Taliban.\nThey saw it in Libya where the justification was getting rid of\nQadhafi.\n  In each case--Saddam, Qadhafi, the Taliban--yes, they were evil\npeople doing bad things--but what was a lie to the American people, and\nthey saw, was that there were no weapons of mass destruction. The\nTaliban is now back in power after 20 years of war, and the chaos that\nwas sown in Libya lives with us to this day.\n  America understands that it is easy for a President to assert he\nwants to go to war. He is the Commander in Chief. He can do it, as he\nhas done in this case, by bypassing Congress. But what the American\npeople have seen is that it is easy to start a war, but the\nconsequences and the costs are not avoidable, and they have been very\ndamaging to the well-being of the people of this country; they have\nbeen very damaging to our prosperity; and, of course, they have caused\nimmense loss of life of our wonderful soldiers and men and women in\nuniform. The American people get it.\n  No. 2, we cannot, under our Constitution, go to war on the basis of a\ndecision by one man. The whole point in our Constitution of vesting\nwar-making authority in the Congress was because our Founders saw how\nKings abused their powers to go to war, how an autocrat abuses his\npower to unilaterally decide to go to war.\n  A quote from Abraham Lincoln:\n\n       The provision of the Constitution [that is, our\n     Constitution] giving the war-making powers to Congress, was\n     dictated . . . by the following reasons . . . Kings had\n     always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars,\n     pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the\n     people was the object. This, our Convention understood\n     [Lincoln said] to be the most oppressive of all Kingly\n     oppression and they resolved to so frame the Constitution\n     that no one man should hold the power of bringing this\n     oppression upon us.\n\n  Yet, in fact, that is exactly what is happening now. One man--Donald\nTrump--unilaterally decided to start this war. It is the same person,\nby the way, with--who as candidate Trump decried, and quite rightly,\nthe rush to war. He decried especially wars of regime change as total\nfailures. He decried the $7 trillion that was spent in Iraq and\nAfghanistan.\n  So now, we have a new situation where the President woke up one day,\nannounced he is going to war, and abandoned his America First\ncommitment. What is clear here is this war is not necessary. Iran, the\nAyatollah, the regime is a threat. We have been containing that threat.\nThere were negotiations about their nuclear capabilities that were\nmaking significant progress. Don't forget that this administration is\nthe one that tore up the agreement in the Obama administration where we\nhad eyes on exactly what was happening in the Iran nuclear program and\nthere was compliance. And we have substituted it with bluster and now,\nultimately, this war of choice.\n  This is a war that has been pushed hard by Prime Minister Netanyahu,\nwho just before the war started was whispering in the ear of Donald\nTrump, and it is pretty clear that the President was persuaded by\nNetanyahu. The President should be more persuaded by the voices of the\nAmerican people who have learned lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan and\neven going to back to Vietnam.\n  The third reason Americans don't want this war is they want us in\nthis Congress, in this administration, to focus on the needs of\nAmericans. We have a situation in Vermont now that is similar to what\npeople face all over this country. Healthcare is something that is out\nof reach for everyday Americans. That is absolutely essential. And you,\nyourself, and I and others did our level best to try to extend tax\ncredits to working families and farmers and small businesses who\ndepended on them to be able to continue to have healthcare. With the\nOne Big Beautiful Bill, 15 million people are losing Medicaid access.\n  What we are seeing is the acceleration of income inequality where\npeople\n\n[[Page S740]]\n\nwho work hard, oftentimes two jobs, who don't have more time in their\nlife to even work more, at the end of the month can't pay their bills.\nAnd isn't it time that we focus on meeting the needs of Americans?\nBasic things like healthcare, like affordable housing, like childcare,\nthings that make a family secure, things that make a community strong.\n  There is absolutely no coherent rationale that the President has\noffered for the end game of this war against Iran. And there is\nabsolutely no explanation from the President about why he has abandoned\nwhat he asserted was his longtime opposition to wars of regime change.\n  And this is the question for all of us in this Chamber who serve in\nthe U.S. Senate and who have responsibilities under the Constitution,\nspecifically article I: Will this U.S. Senate allow a single man to\nplunge this Nation into war when it is our constitutional\nresponsibility to make a decision as to whether to send our men and\nwomen into combat? That is our responsibility and vote, as all of us\nwill. We cannot avoid our responsibility to vote, to stand and to be\ncounted.\n\n  Now, at the close, I want to say something that I know every single\none of the Members of the Senate feels very strongly, and that is\nsupport for our men and women in uniform.\n  We have brave members of the Vermont Guard that are serving right\nnow, and I speak of my concern for them, their well-being, and their\nfamilies. But I express that same strong sensibility toward every\nfamily who has a servicemember serving in this conflict, and I say that\nto every servicemember in the conflict: We support you.\n  But, Mr. President, this is a wrong decision. You do not have the\nright to make this decision unilaterally.\n  And I say to my colleagues in the Congress: We must stand up and do\nour job and meet our responsibility. And that is why I am a strong\nsupporter of Senator Kaine and Senator Paul's War Powers Resolution.\n  I yield the floor.\n\n                          ____________________"]], "columns": ["granule_id", "date", "congress", "session", "volume", "issue", "title", "chamber", "granule_class", "sub_granule_class", "page_start", "page_end", "speakers", "bills", "citation", "full_text"], "primary_keys": ["granule_id"], "primary_key_values": ["CREC-2026-03-02-pt1-PgS739"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.1124860029667616, "source": "Federal Register API & Regulations.gov API", "source_url": "https://www.federalregister.gov/developers/api/v1", "license": "Public Domain (U.S. Government data)", "license_url": "https://www.regulations.gov/faq"}