S.J. Res. 59

Floor Speech

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Mr. OSSOFF. Mr. President, on Saturday, June 21, 2025, at President Trump's direction, U.S. forces struck certain nuclear facilities in Iran. As I stated this week in the Intelligence Committee: Those strikes having been taken, I certainly hope they were effective. Most of the Congress is united in our conviction that Iran must not build or acquire a nuclear weapon. An urgent unanswered question is whether the administration's use of force meaningfully advanced that longstanding foreign policy objective. Members of Congress are seeking further information from the administration in order to determine whether these strikes were effective.

Tonight, I voted to discharge S.J. Res. 59 from the Foreign Relations Committee. Such discharge would require the Senate to debate whether congressional authorization should be required for any further offensive military action against Iran. Given the stakes for U.S. national security, the safety of military servicemembers we represent, and the security of our allies, Senators owe the American people that debate, consistent with our constitutional role in the formation of U.S. foreign policy.

The administration has argued that last Saturday's strikes were within the President's inherent article II authorities as Commander in Chief. That debate is not relevant to Senator Kaine's S.J. Res. 59, which would pertain to future military action.

Indeed, the question for the Senate tonight was not whether the President's use of force to date has been legal and constitutional or whether the strikes themselves were necessary and effective. The question was: Should the Senate robustly debate whether any future offensive military action should require congressional approval? Given the stakes for our national security and our constituents who serve in the Armed Forces, I regret that Senators refused to bring this measure to the floor for debate.

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