Sen. Josh Hawley opposes congressional approval for Iran attacks

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) spoke with ABC 17 News Wednesday about the ongoing military' conflict with Iran.

The Senate took up a vote on a War Powers Resolution Wednesday that would require President Donald Trump to get congressional approval for additional attacks against Iran. The US and Israel struck the country on Saturday, killing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran has since responded with shots of their own.

The procedural vote failed by a vote of 53-47, with Hawley voting against the measure, although he previously supported a similar war powers resolution related to military operations in Venezuela earlier this year

"I think in this case, the administration is in compliance with the War Powers Act. They have transmitted the necessary notification to Congress under the War Powers Act," Hawley said. "You got to notify Congress if you're going to put Troops or in this case, air forces into harm's away, you have to certify there are no ground Troops involved, which they have done,"

Hawley added the administration must notify Congress under the War Powers Act and that after 60 days of operations without ground troops, the White House would need to seek further congressional authorization.

"I think it's very important that there are no troops involved currently in this conflict, and there have not been troops involved at any point," he said. "That, to me has always been a red line. It was with Venezuela, I think that if there were troops committed to combat operations, Congress would need to authorize that. That's currently not the case, so I think the president and the administration are complying with the law."