Writing in The Washington Post, Bruce Ackerman and Oona Hathaway note the Obama administration's apparent disregard for the War Powers Act:
This week, the War Powers Act confronts its moment of truth. Friday will mark the 60th day since President Obama told Congress of his Libyan campaign. According to the act, that declaration started a 60-day clock: If Obama fails to obtain congressional support for his decision within this time limit, he has only one option — end American involvement within the following 30 days.
Obama has not only failed but he hasn't even tried — leaving it to Sen. Richard Lugar, the ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, to call for a “specific resolution that would give [the president] authority.” Neither the president nor the Democratic congressional leadership has shown any interest. They have been sleep-walking their way to Day 60. [Emphasis mine]
This, I think, is the key point: If Congress were actually interested in controlling the president's ability to make war, then -- already -- it would have either issued War Powers authorization or forced Obama to end the operation in Libya. As it stands, Congress has zero interest in limiting presidential war-making and has long since ceded its prerogative to the executive branch. And in calling for lawmakers to enforce the War Powers Act, Ackerman and Hathaway are hoping for an unlikely reversal in congressional decision making. It's been more than a decade since Congress last cared about presidential warmaking, and at the moment, it shows no signs of reviving that interest.
