Congress has not authorized Trump’s Iran war. Until lawmakers either define and limit the mission or stop paying for it, troops and civilians will remain trapped between a president claiming the power to continue and a legislature unwilling to take responsibility for ending it.
Archiv: National Defense Authorization Act / Gesetz zur Autorisierung der nationalen Verteidigung (NDAA) / US Militärbudget / Kriegsetat
Progressives Urge Senate to Reject Israel Military Integration in NDAA Passed by House
House lawmakers voted 216-212, almost entirely along party lines, to pass HR 8800, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2027.
Republicans voted 209-7 in favor, while Democrats voted 205-6 against the measure. Democratic Reps. Henry Cuellar (Texas), Don Davis (NC), Jared Golden (Maine), Vicente Gonzalez (Texas), Adam Gray (Calif.), and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Wash.) voted „yes.“ Independent Rep. Kevin Kiley of California also voted in favor of the bill.
US-Israel Defense Integration on Horizon as House Keeps Section 219 in NDAA
The House approved the rule governing debate on H.R. 8800 by a 214-211 vote Tuesday, July 21. The vote allowed the chamber to proceed with the NDAA but excluded the amendment from Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) that would have removed Section 219.
Unfortunately the Rule passed just now and no debate or vote was allowed on section 219, integration of US military technology and supply chains with Israel’s. The NDAA will receive a recorded vote tomorrow with section 219 in it. I’ll vote no.
7:11 PM · Jul 21, 2026
Tomorrow, the House will vote on the NDAA, which includes a provision to merge parts of our military with the IDF. This amendment is an existential threat to American sovereignty and democracy. Every member of Congress must vote NO.
12:49 AM · Jul 22, 2026
House Rule Advances 2027 NDAA With Section to Integrate US and Israeli Militaries
The House on Tuesday approved a procedural vote to advance the $1.15 trillion 2027 National Defense Authorization Act, which includes a section to further integrate the US and Israeli militaries, a plan that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said was his idea.
The rule to allow floor debate and a vote on the NDAA and several pieces of legislation passed in a 214-211 vote, and a final vote on the House’s version of the NDAA is expected to take place on Wednesday. The procedural step came after the House Rules Committee denied a vote on an amendment introduced by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) to strip Section 219, the Israeli integration plan, from the bill.
On Iran, a $37 billion price tag and no answers on how it ends
Hegseth, and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, came armed with an $87.6 billion Trump administration supplemental request that includes more than $67 billion for the war and other Pentagon spending.
And as Hegseth announced that the conflict had racked up $37.5 billion in costs, it is expanding. More US troops died over the weekend, bringing the death toll to 18; CNN reported that 100 American personnel had been injured since early July;
‚Imagine All the Better Things That Could Have Been Done‘: Trump Has Blown $37.5 Billion on Iran War
That figure came from a line of questioning by US Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), as Hegseth appeared before the Senate Appropriations Committee to support Trump‘s June supplemental funding request, which includes tens of billions for the Pentagon.
Hegseth told Durbin that the $37.5 billion estimate includes what‘s been spent so far, plus some projected spending through the end of the fiscal year in September—an exchange quickly met with fury by various critics, many of whom pointed out the range of ways that money could have been better spent by an administration allegedly dedicated to combating „waste, fraud, and abuse.“
Senate Democrats Block Advancement of $1.1 Trillion NDAA Over Iran War
Senate Democrats on Tuesday blocked the advancement of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act, citing President Trump’s war with Iran, which continues to rage following the collapse of the US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding.
The NDAA would provide the Pentagon with over $1.1 trillion in funding as part of the White House’s plan for a $1.5 trillion military budget for 2027, a nearly 50% increase from this year. The bill also includes an amendment, Section 1217, to further merge the US and Israeli militaries under a plan being pushed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
A procedural vote of 50-46 fell well short of the 60 votes that it needed to advance the NDAA. Every Democrat, except two who weren’t present for the vote — Senators Jon Fetterman (PA) and Alex Padilla (CA) — voted against advancing the sprawling military spending bill.
How Section 219, the US-Israel Military Merger, Would Thwart American Democracy
(July 13, 2026)
The House provision, which has a Senate version known as Section 1217, would also forbid the president of the United States from limiting intelligence collaboration with Israel over its human rights abuses. If the President ever wants to limit such collaboration, he or she must tell Congress and can only cite American national security as a basis.
In other words, these bills would connect the US and Israeli militaries in unprecedented ways and make it exceedingly difficult for any future president to unwind this partnership with a foreign government.
Congressional Proposal Could Deepen US Complicity
(June 16, 2026)
Buried in the US$1.15 trillion National Defense Authorization Act is a provision that would deepen US military cooperation with Israel while walling that cooperation off from further congressional oversight.
Section 219 (formerly section 224) creates the role of an “executive agent” focused on folding Israeli technology into US weapons programs, and vice versa, including in missile and air defense technologies as well as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, cyberwarfare, and autonomous systems. Once implemented, the provision would speed efforts to embed Israeli technologies into US weapons systems in ways almost never codified into law, even for allies. As the protracted experience with unwinding Turkish participation in the F-35 program shows, practically, integration binds the United States to rely on producers in ways that become next to impossible to walk back later, even if lawmakers want to.
(…)
Section 219 also calls for “data fusion.” In defense doctrine, data fusion means combining feeds from many sensors and intelligence sources into a single targeting picture. The United States would be absorbing Israeli data, which may have been collected under problematic mass surveillance programs. Moreover, section 219 would be reinforced by section 622 of the intelligence appropriations bill, which mandates intelligence sharing and would further promote combining US intelligence streams with Israeli ones that could then be used by the Israeli military for targeting.
Renewed war with Iran threatens to derail congressional agenda
Danielle Pletka, a distinguished senior fellow in foreign and defense policy at the American Enterprise Institute, said Trump has a military plan on his desk that U.S. commanders believe could force Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz without making any major concessions to its theocratic regime.
“The president has had on his desk for months now a 10- to 14-day plan that would do what was necessary to finish out the mission of the war on Iran. It would take out the remaining missile sites we saw them work on, the remaining parts of their defense-industrial complex, the remaining nuclear [program] and some of the critical [Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps] emplacements, and do that in a way that Centcom feels would mean we could walk away, not have a deal, and stop worrying about Iran for a little while,” she said.
“Will it take 10 to 14 days? Who knows? Is the president going to follow that plan? Who knows?” she said.
The Pentagon is running out of money
WASHINGTON — The Defense Department was funded with a budget of nearly a trillion dollars, but it is running out of cash, according to three U.S. officials, a former defense official, outside experts and two congressional staff members.
Democratic socialists eye 2028 White House race
(June 25, 2026)
The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are eyeing a 2028 presidential bid in the wake of recent electoral successes across the country.
DSA Co-chair Ashik Siddique told The Hill in a Thursday interview that the organization has more than 100,000 members and 200 chapters across the country. “We want people to be talking proactively about what they would want to see in a presidential campaign,” he said. The organization is looking to see how voters would engage and what would motivate them, he added.
Ending the Costly, Unnecessary Iran War Is the Right Thing. Period.
The task now is not to reward Trump politically, nor to excuse the recklessness that produced this war. It is to prevent the war from returning. Democrats can condemn the decision to start it without sabotaging the agreement that ends it. They can hold Trump accountable without helping Netanyahu drag the United States back into conflict. The choice before them is not between opposing Trump and supporting peace. It is between learning from America’s endless wars and repeating them.
Trump’s Approval Sinks Amid Unpopular War, Darkening G.O.P. Prospects
Just 26 percent of voters said they were satisfied with the Democratic Party.
The discontent includes a significant number of Democrats who expressed reservations about their own party. Forty-four percent of Democrats described themselves as unsatisfied, while just 23 percent of Republicans said the same about their party.
“They’re just not fighting back hard enough in my eyes,” said Matthew Berryhill, 35, a recruiter from Marietta, Ga., a pivotal battleground area in the state’s key Senate race this year, who described himself as a progressive Democrat. “They come out with strong statements and strong words, and no action to back it up.”
The Court Gutted Congress’s War Power. It’s Time to Give It Back.
The War Powers Resolution of 1973 was designed to restore the constitutional balance in decisions to commit the United States to armed conflict. Its central provision — a legislative veto enabling Congress to direct the withdrawal of American forces by concurrent resolution — was cast into legal doubt by the Supreme Court’s 1983 decision in INS v. Chadha. But Chadha was wrongly decided, its reasoning is exceptionally weak, and the Court’s subsequent embrace of functionalism in separation-of-powers cases has left it incoherent as precedent. As the United States drifts deeply into a congressionally unauthorized war with Iran, the case for overruling Chadha, or at minimum limiting it to its facts, has never been stronger.
How Has the Supreme Court Ruled on the Constitutionality of the War Powers Act?
(April 23, 2026)
The Supreme Court has never issued a definitive ruling declaring the 1973 War Powers Resolution (often called the War Powers Act) constitutional or unconstitutional; instead, the Court and lower federal courts have repeatedly avoided resolving the central constitutional clash between Congress and the President over war-making authority by invoking justiciability doctrines such as standing and the political‑question doctrine [1] [2].
How Has the Supreme Court Ruled on the Constitutionality of the War Powers Act?
The Supreme Court has never issued a definitive ruling declaring the 1973 War Powers Resolution (often called the War Powers Act) constitutional or unconstitutional; instead, the Court and lower federal courts have repeatedly avoided resolving the central constitutional clash between Congress and the President over war-making authority by invoking justiciability doctrines such as standing and the political‑question doctrine [1] [2].
Pentagon wants record $1.5 trillion, cost of Iran war not included
„This budget was formulated, honestly, before we went into conflict with Iran,“ Jules Hurst III, the Pentagon‘s acting chief financial officer, told reporters at a briefing April 21.
In addition, the Trump administration separately plans to ask Congress for more than $200 billion in supplemental funding for the Iran war, according to reports.
Trump Set To Unveil His $1.5 Trillion Military Budget Request Amid Raging Iran War
President Trump is expected to unveil his request for a $1.5 trillion military budget for the 2027 fiscal year on Friday, Reuters has reported, marking a 50% increase from this year’s already massive budget.
The 2026 military budget marked the first to officially exceed $1 trillion, which was achieved by Congress passing a 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) worth about $900 billion and combining it with $150 billion in supplemental military spending that was included in the so-called Big Beautiful Bill, a reconciliation bill that became law last year.
The White House is expected to go with a similar strategy to reach $1.5 trillion. It may request an NDAA worth about $1 trillion or less and seek a supplemental spending bill for $400 to $600 billion.
Iran says it shot down MQ-9 drone near Isfahan
The report said the drone was intercepted and destroyed earlier Tuesday.
Iranian officials said the downing marked the 146th drone shot down during the conflict.
The MQ-9 Reaper, widely used for surveillance and strike missions, has an estimated cost of about $30 million per unit.
Tell Democrats in Congress to Insist That Schumer and Jeffries Step Aside
The Democratic leadership in Congress has failed to provide real leadership against a war-crazed Trump administration. Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Hakeem Jeffries have not acted to prevent war on Venezuela or the current war on Iran. They worked to delay a vote on Iran until after the war had started, while failing to clearly oppose it before or after the launch of the war. Schumer and Jeffries have shown that they cannot be trusted to prevent more wars, more threats of wars, or the transfer of another half a trillion dollars a year into the war machine.
It’s time for congressional Democrats to replace Schumer and Jeffries with leaders who are willing and able to challenge the runaway militarism that has dragged our country into launching yet another insanely destructive war.
The form below enables you to quickly send a clear message to the Democrat(s) who represent you in the House and/or Senate.
Coalition of Antiwar Groups Launches National Campaign Calling for Jeffries and Schumer to Step Aside from Leadership
A coalition of antiwar groups launched a national campaign Wednesday for constituents to urge Democrats in Congress to remove Rep. Hakeem Jeffries and Sen. Chuck Schumer from their posts as minority leaders.
The coalition includes RootsAction and Peace Action, the nation’s largest grassroots peace network, as well as World BEYOND War and the Progressive Democrats of America – Greater Middle East Alliance.
“Schumer and Jeffries have failed their party and country through wobbly leadership when firmness and clarity are needed in opposing a reckless and costly war,” said Jeff Cohen, cofounder of RootsAction. “The Democratic base sees a weak and confused party leadership as Trump demands billions more to attack Iran. While the party needs strong leaders in Congress, both Schumer and Jeffries have shown that they’re not up to the job.”
Trump Says Wars Can Be Fought ‘Forever’ With ‘Virtually Unlimited’ Weapons Stockpiles
In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote: “The United States Munitions Stockpiles have, at the medium and upper medium grade, never been higher or better.”
The president then claimed the U.S. has “a virtually unlimited supply of these weapons,” and added “Wars can be fought ‘forever,’ and very successfully, using just these supplies.”
Iraq welcomes US vote to repeal war authorizations
The ministry added that the move “sends a clear signal to the international community that Iraq has become a secure and attractive destination for investment.”
On counterterrorism, the ministry stressed that the repeal does not weaken ongoing efforts, noting that the 2001 authorization—enacted after the September 11 attacks to confront al-Qaeda and affiliated terrorist groups—remains in force.
Iraq welcomes US Congress vote to repeal war authorizations
Iraq on Wednesday welcomed a US Congress vote to repeal the 1991 and 2002 Authorizations for Use of Military Force (AUMF) against Baghdad, included within the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2026.
The Foreign Ministry said it views “with great pleasure” the vote by the House of Representatives and the Senate, noting that the repeal awaits ratification by President Donald Trump.
Senate passes $901 billion defense bill that pushes Hegseth for boat strike video
But overall, the bill represents a compromise between the parties. It implements many of Trump‘s executive orders and proposals on eliminating diversity and inclusion efforts in the military and grants emergency military powers at the U.S. border with Mexico. It also enhances congressional oversight of the Department of Defense, repeals several years-old war authorizations and seeks to overhaul how the Pentagon purchases weapons as the U.S. tries to outpace China in developing the next generation of military technology.
Sweeping US defense bill passes, with Ukraine, Venezuela provisions defying Trump
And it has a provision to withhold a chunk of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth‘s travel budget if he does not provide Congress with unedited videos of military strikes on boats in the southern Caribbean and eastern Pacific. The Trump administration has said the strikes are directed at Venezuelan drug-traffickers.
The Senate vote came a day after Trump ordered a blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, his latest move to increase pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro‘s government.
It repeals the 1991 and 2002 Authorizations for the Use of Military Force (AUMFs) against Iraq, an attempt to reassert Congress‘ role in deciding to send troops into combat.
U.S. Elites Learned Much from the Vietnam Defeat
So, what did they learn?
– They learned that wars can indeed last forever, but that Vietnam wasn’t the best “forever war” for the military-industrial complex because it became deeply unpopular and was disrupting cohesion within the military itself. The best forever wars are open-ended “wars” like the global war on terror. And perhaps a “new Cold War” with Russia and/or China. Wars that don’t involve the deployment of over half a million men (unless that “new” Cold War turns hot).
– They learned to control the narrative. No more journalists traveling freely in war zones as in the 1960s in Vietnam. Journalists are now most often embedded in U.S. military units. Embedded reporters, dependent on the military for access and protection, know what they can and can’t say, even as they tend to sympathize with the troops they’re with. ….
US seeks dialogue with Russia, China to get rid of nuclear weapons — Trump
After taking office on January 20, Trump sent multiple signals about his willingness to discuss the subject, but has so far put forward no concrete proposals. Among other things, Moscow and Washington need to discuss whether they are ready to forge a deal to replace the New START treaty on the reduction of strategic offensive arms, which expires in 2026.
Trump proposes global denuclearization: „The power of these weapons is madness.“
(March 6, 2025)
„It would be fantastic if everyone got rid of their nuclear weapons. I know that Russia and us have by far the most nuclear weapons. China will have a similar amount in four or five years. It would be great if we could all denuclearize, because the power of nuclear weapons is madness,“ Trump said in a video later posted on the social network X.
The comment comes three weeks after a statement made in the Oval Office, where he emphasized the importance of restarting discussions on nuclear arms control, particularly with Russia and China.