Watch: Johnson says limiting Trump’s power with the War Powers Act is ‘dangerous’.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Congress is facing a war powers debate over President Donald Trump’s authority to bomb Iran under highly unusual circumstances — without a formal declaration or address to the nation, the commander-in-chief has already launched the country into a rapidly escalating war in the Middle East.

Watch House Speaker Mike Johnson’s remarks in the video player above.

Bombs are falling, people are dying, and pledges of vengeance and vengeance fly in escalating threats, all while untold amounts of taxpayer money are being spent on a military strategy expected to last for weeks with an indeterminate goal and conclusion. Unlike the run-up to the Iraq War in 2003, which included long debates in Congress in the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001, or the recent US military strikes on Venezuela that proved limited, the joint US-Israeli military attack on Iran, dubbed “Operation Epic Fury,” is now well underway, with no end in sight.

He watches: Hegseth insists that the Iranian conflict is “not Iraq” and “is not endless.”

At least six US military personnel were killed, and Trump warned Sunday that “there will likely be more.”

“It’s troubling,” Rep. Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, told The Associated Press on Monday.

“He’s not trying to make his case to Congress or the American people,” Smith said of Trump. “He’s decided to do it unilaterally.”

This moment is crucial for Congress, which alone has the power to declare war under the US Constitution, and for the Republican president, who has seized power continuously during his second term with his executive authority. Trump has led the nation into war at a particularly sensitive time, with the Department of Homeland Security operating without routine funds due to a standoff with Democrats over their demands to restrict his immigration enforcement operations. The potential costs of war in terms of lives lost and dollars spent divide the parties, and perhaps Americans themselves.

“The Constitution is intended to prevent the accumulation of power in any branch of government — and in any single person in government,” said David Janowski, acting director of the Constitution Project at the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog organization.

“We need representatives of the people to comment on whether we, the people, are going to war now.”

War powers as a check on presidential power

In the United States, Congress would need to affirmatively approve wartime operations, with a declaration of war, or with an authorization for the use of military force, to essentially approve the actions. But this rarely happens.

In fact, Congress has declared war only five times in the country’s history, most recently in 1941, entering World War II one day after Pearl Harbor. Congress approved AUMF for the Gulf War in 1990, and did so again in 2001 and 2002 to wage the September 11 wars in Afghanistan and then Iraq.

But Congress also passed the War Powers Resolution during the Vietnam War era, as a tool of last resort — one that was used to deter a president who embarked on military trips without congressional approval.

Both the House and Senate have prepared war powers resolutions for votes this week. On Monday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others briefed congressional leaders behind closed doors, without an audience watching. All lawmakers are scheduled to hold a special briefing on Tuesday.

Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told CNN that Trump, as president, “does not have the right to do this alone.”

While lawmakers have harshly criticized the Iranian regime for its human rights abuses and nuclear ambitions, Democrats said Trump has not provided a justification for the war nor outlined his strategy for what comes next. Trump’s coalition is divided over what it sees as the president’s failure to fulfill his “America First” campaign promise by leading the United States toward a foreign war.

Many lawmakers are concerned that the involvement could last longer as the operation led to the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and hundreds of people in the region, while others insisted there was no need for US troops on the ground.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he never bought into the wartime “break it and own it” concept. “If there is a threat to America, deal with it,” he said over the weekend. “That doesn’t mean you have it all.”

The power of the wallet can stop wars

Over time, presidents of both major political parties have gained broad authority to engage in what are often limited U.S. military strikes to achieve strategic national security objectives without congressional approval. The military operations carried out by Democrat Barack Obama in Libya, and the incursions carried out by Republican George H.W. Bush in Panama, took place without the approval of Congress.

Even if Congress can pass a war powers resolution to rein in Trump in Iran, the House and Senate are unlikely to get the two-thirds majority needed to override a presidential veto.

Trump has ignored Congress’s power to dictate what he can and cannot do, on war and other matters. He mentioned Iran only briefly in his State of the Union address last week, treating lawmakers’ support as an afterthought.

The Founding Fathers created a constitutional system in which the president and Congress compete over these issues — but with Congress having one particularly powerful tool, because it controls federal funding, said John Yu, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

“Congress knows how to stop this if it wants to,” said Yu, who helped draft the Bush administration’s use-of-force authorizations in 2001 and 2002. He said the Vietnam War ended as soon as Congress withdrew funding.

But Congress is controlled by a Republican majority that largely shares Trump’s view of concentrating military power against Iran, and recently approved massive new money for the Pentagon, about $175 billion, in the big tax cuts bill he signed into law last year.

With the president’s Republican party in power in Congress, it is not surprising that they are unlikely to object. “They agree with him,” Yu said.

Debate begins in Congress

Republican Senator Tom Cotton, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Trump had already laid out his vision for Iran during his 8-minute video speech over the weekend.

Cotton said Sunday that Americans should expect to see an “expanded air and naval campaign” in the region, which could lead to the pilots being shot down, though he said military personnel would be recovered.

But the Trump administration has not articulated a plan to stabilize the region while Iran appoints a new leader and determines how it will respond to the US attack.

“There’s no simple answer to what happens next,” Cotton said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”