Iran War hits 60-day mark as War Powers Act deadline looms over Congress

The US-Iran war reaches its 60-day mark in early May 2025, triggering the War Powers Resolution deadline that requires President Trump to obtain congressional authorization or end hostilities. At least three Republican senators including Susan Collins, Thom Tillis, and John Curtis signal they would not support extending the war, creating cracks in GOP unity even as Senate Republicans blocked Democrats' fifth war powers resolution on April 28. Trump declares he will not be pressured by timelines and claims to have indefinitely extended the April 8 cease-fire, while legal experts predict his administration will argue the truce pauses the 60-day clock. Iran contests the cease-fire's validity, citing the US naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz as a breach, while the closure has upended global energy markets.

War Powers Resolution 60-day deadline and legal implications

• ▪The War Powers Resolution allows the president to extend a military campaign by a further 30 days for safe and orderly withdrawal of U.S. troops
• ▪The 1973 War Powers Resolution provided no mechanism for pausing the 60-day clock when a cease-fire is in effect
• ▪The U.S. war against Iran reached the 60-day mark under the War Powers Resolution
• ▪A 1973 law mandates that unauthorized military operations end if they have gone past 60 days
• ▪The War Powers Resolution does not require Congress to pass a resolution ordering an end to hostilities for unauthorized conflicts to be required to end after 60 days
• ▪The legal clock established by the War Powers Resolution runs out at the beginning of May 2025

Republican lawmakers' positions on congressional authorization

• ▪Senator James Lankford argued it is too far out to speculate on what Republican lawmakers will do if the War Powers Resolution clock runs out on May 1
• ▪Senator John Kennedy stated no one in the Senate is counting down the days and saying that one second after 60 days the conflict with Iran must end
• ▪Senator Susan Collins stated the president needs to request authorization from Congress to continue hostilities beyond 60 days
• ▪Eight Republican senators supported a 2020 resolution under the War Powers Act forbidding further unauthorized military operations against Iran
• ▪President Donald Trump vetoed a 2020 congressional resolution forbidding further unauthorized military operations against Iran
• ▪Senator Susan Collins leads the Senate Appropriations Committee, which plays a major role in determining U.S. military spending levels

Trump administration's cease-fire claims and military activities

• ▪The cease-fire between the United States and Iran began on April 8, 2025

Legal precedents and interpretations of the War Powers Act

• ▪Katherine Yon Ebright stated the White House will likely argue that the cease-fire stopped the 60-day War Powers Resolution clock
• ▪Congress passed an authorization for use of military force in the buildup to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq
• ▪President Donald Trump ordered a missile strike in early 2020 that assassinated Iranian General Qassem Suleimani
• ▪Katherine Yon Ebright stated it is very likely the Trump administration would have lawyers promulgating interpretations that the Iran conflict can go beyond 60 days
• ▪The Trump administration asserted in November that its deadly strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific were not covered by the War Powers Resolution because they were conducted at such a distance as to not endanger U.S. troops
• ▪The Obama administration argued that a 2011 bombing campaign against Libyan dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi's regime was of low-enough intensity to not qualify as a covered conflict under the War Powers Resolution
• ▪Congress passed an authorization for use of military force after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks

Perspective of Republican senators opposing war extension

• ▪Senator Susan Collins stated the president needs to request authorization from Congress to continue hostilities beyond 60 days

Perspective of Trump administration

• ▪Katherine Yon Ebright stated the White House will likely argue that the cease-fire stopped the 60-day War Powers Resolution clock

Perspective of Legal experts on executive power

• ▪Katherine Yon Ebright stated it is very likely the Trump administration would have lawyers promulgating interpretations that the Iran conflict can go beyond 60 days