Former Secretaries Propose New War Powers Law

Two former Secretaries of State, James Baker III, a Republican, and Warren Christopher, a Democrat, chaired a commission looking into the War Powers Resolution of 1973. The resolution was passed by Congress toward the end of the Vietnam War and was intended to revamp the way that the nation was led into armed conflict. The resolution states that the president may only take the armed forced into conflict with the express approval of Congress through an authorization or a declaration of war. President Nixon vetoed the resolution when it passed, calling it unconstitutional, a position supported by every president since. Congress was able to override that veto.

Baker and Christopher admit that the resolution may indeed be unconstitutional and have proposed a new law aimed not at fixing the War Powers Resolution, but at creating a new regime for executive and legislative branch cooperation in matters of war and defense.

"Our proposed new law, the War Powers Consultation Act of 2009, does not pretend to resolve the underlying constitutional issues - only a constitutional amendment or a Supreme Court decision could do that. It would reserve the ability of both Congress and the president to assert their constitutional war powers. In drawing up the statute we focused on a common theme that almost all past proposals shared: the importance of meaningful consultation between the president and Congress before the nation is committed to war."

The Constitution divides the war powers of the federal government between Congress and the president. The president is the commander-in-chief of the military and has exclusive authority to command the armed forces in war time. Congress has the sole authority to declare war, although it has not done so since World War II, and controls the funding for military operations. The president has Constitutional authority to use military force in times of emergency or defensive necessity, but must go to Congress for authorization if hostilities are expected to last for an unspecified longer period of time. It is that lack of specificity that Baker and Christopher are trying to address with their proposal.