This story was produced as part of the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. It first appeared at cpr.org.
Congress returns this week to a Washington at war. On Saturday, the U.S. and Israel started military operations against Iran, something President Donald Trump had been signaling in the weeks prior.
Trump has told different media outlets that the action, which killed Iran’s leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, could last four to five weeks. Over the weekend, at least four U.S. service members were killed in action, with four seriously wounded during an Iranian attack in Kuwait.
Reactions from Colorado’s members of Congress have fallen along party lines, with Republicans supportive of Trump’s actions and Democrats saying Trump should have consulted Congress.
Republicans plan to use the military action to put pressure on Democrats to pass funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which has been shut down since February 14. Meanwhile, Democrats and a few Republicans are planning votes on bipartisan war powers resolutions in an attempt to limit Trump’s use of military power in Iran.
Republican Rep. Jeff Hurd wrote on social media, “With tensions high and threats from Iran and its proxies still very real, DHS must have the resources it needs to protect the American people. National security is not optional. Funding the men and women responsible for securing our homeland should be a point of unity, not division.”
Hurd noted Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism and he fully supported Trump’s “decisive action.”
“Peace is not preserved through weakness or appeasement. It is preserved through strength, deterrence, and the clear understanding that if you threaten Americans, there will be consequences,” he said.
GOP Rep. Gabe Evans, an Army veteran, said he “applauded” the action. “We will no longer tolerate what endangers America, our allies, and global stability.”
On social media, Evans called on Democrats to “End the blockade. Reopen DHS.”
Evans sits on the Homeland Security Committee and criticized Democrats for closing DHS. Democrats have been pushing for reforms in the wake of the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis by ICE or Border Security agents.
“The Department of Homeland Security was created after 9/11 to prevent another catastrophic terrorist attack on American soil. Yet today — in the face of escalating tensions with Iran and real national security threats — DHS remains closed,” he said on social media. “When terrorists are actively seeking to exploit vulnerabilities, shutting down the very department responsible for protecting the homeland is reckless.”
GOP Rep. Jeff Crank also called for funding DHS. “With the heightened threat for U.S.-based attacks, Democrats need to put politics aside and end this shutdown,” he wrote on social media.
Crank, who serves on the House Armed Services committee, said the U.S., the Middle East and the world are safer because of Khamenei’s death.
“Ayatollah Khamenei was directly responsible for the murder of more than 600 Americans and was actively planning to kill more. In recent months, he killed tens of thousands of innocent protesters, sought to rebuild his nuclear weapons facilities, and, by many reports, was planning a preemptive strike against the U.S. and our allies,” he wrote on social media.
Media outlets said there was no evidence or intelligence that Iran was planning to attack the U.S.
GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert didn’t weigh in on the attack, only writing on social media she’s “praying for safety for our service members and wisdom for our leaders.” Boebert’s been supportive of an America First foreign policy that does not engage in long foreign wars, voting against aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan in the past.
On the other side of the aisle, Democrats are calling for oversight and accountability.
Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he’ll continue to demand answers from the administration.
“The Trump Administration must explain immediately how it plans to prevent its war with Iran from endangering the lives of American troops by destabilizing Iran and the region,” he said.
Polls showed little appetite for a U.S. attack on Iran.
“Trump unilaterally dragged us into another conflict without a plan. The Ayatollah was a brutal dictator, but war must be the last resort and only for an imminent threat. I'll do everything to hold this president accountable,” Democratic Rep. Brittany Pettersen said on social media.
Former Army Ranger, Rep. Jason Crow mourning the loss of American service members said it’s a reminder of “the dangerous things we ask our men and women to do, and why I take my oversight responsibility” seriously. Like Crank, Crow serves on the House Armed Services Committee.
And he’s been critical of Trump, who himself avoided serving in Vietnam. On CNN he said Trump, “loves pounding his chest and acting tough and talking about the costs of war, but he knows nothing about the cost of war.”
Democratic Rep. Joe Neguse said under the Constitution, Congress is the body that declares war. “President Trump’s reckless and dangerous decision to, yet again, initiate military action without congressional authorization is clearly unconstitutional.”
Congress has not formally declared war since World War II, instead relying on resolutions authorizing the use of force. The last time that happened was in 2002, before the U.S. attacked Iraq, and 2001 in response to the September 11 attacks. The most recent authorization act repealed the 2002 authorization.
Sen. John Hickenlooper said he welcomed the fall of the repressive Iranian regime, but “This unilateral action ignores most Americans' desire to avoid endless foreign wars, creating the distinct impression of a calculated distraction from his domestic failures including the economy, ICE violence, and the unreleased Epstein files.”
He added that by failing to consult Congress, the U.S. goes in without “an articulated goal, strategy or endgame.”
Democratic Rep. Diana DeGette said she will support a bipartisan war powers resolution being led by GOP Rep. Tom Massie and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna.
“While the Iranian regime is a brutal autocracy that has oppressed the Iranian people, that alone does not give Trump the justification needed to launch a military operation of this magnitude without congressional approval,” she said. “I urge my Republican colleagues to join us in stopping Trump’s unjustified march to war.”
The vote is currently scheduled for Thursday, while a House vote on funding DHS could come as early as Wednesday.
