Alex GriffingMay 12th, 2026, 2:34 pm

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) pressed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth during a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on the need for President Donald Trump to come before Congress and seek legal authorization for the war in Iran.

“I have been talking about an authorization of use of military force. I understand that the administration has made clear that you believe that the actions taken thus far fall under the president’s Article II authority. I think reasonable people have disagreed about the boundaries of presidential war powers for a long time,” began Murkowski, adding:

The War Powers Resolution is pretty clear here. It requires the president to terminate hostilities within 60 days absent congressional authorization. I think it’s important that we in Congress actually assert our own role and responsibility to this. That 60-day clock expired April 28th, and then on the 1st, the administration sent letters to congressional leaders asserting that the hostilities have ended.

I think where there is confusion is when the president says hostilities have ended, we still have 15,000 troops that are forward deployed, more than 20 warships in an active naval blockade. CENTCOM has redirected 61 commercial vessels and disabled tankers. In other words, it doesn’t appear that hostilities have ended. And so the question to you is whether or not the administration has considered or has intended to seek an authorization of use of military force from Congress.

Hegseth replied, “Senator, our view is that should the president make the decision to recommence, we would have all the authorities necessary to do so.”

“Do you think that it would be helpful to the president if it was made clear that, in fact, Congress did provide an AUMF?” offered Murkowski.

Hegseth doubled down, “I think the president—our view is that he has all the authorities he needs under Article II to execute.”

Hegseth appeared before the Senate to answer questions on his $1.45 trillion budget request for the upcoming fiscal year. Controversy has swirled around the Trump administration for weeks about whether or not it is acting outside of the War Powers Act by not seeking congressional authorization for continued military operations in and around Iran.

Watch the clip above via C-SPAN.

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