Congress can curtail president's war plans

Congress has a number of powers it could use to affect the amount of troops the President puts in Iraq, point out four law professors from Duke University, Durham, N.C. "Congress may limit the scope of the present Iraqi war by either of two mechanisms," write Erwin Chemerinsky, Walter Dellinger, H. Jefferson Powell, and Christopher Schroeder.

"First, it may directly define limits on the scope of that war, such as by imposing geographic restrictions or a ceiling on the number of troops assigned to that conflict. Second, it may achieve the same objective by enacting ... restrictions that limit the use of appropriated funds. Indeed, the reason that the Constitution explicitly limits appropriations for the Army to two years is in order to ensure that Congress oversees ongoing military engagements.

"The Constitution's drafters understood the immense national sacrifice that war entails. Moreover, they understood that, during times of war, presidential power tends to expand. For these reasons, the Constitution assigns Congress the power to initiate war and to fund and define the parameters of military operations."

Schroeder, a former assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel and chief counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, took part in a briefing of congressional staff on the scope of Congress' power to limit the president's actions in wartime.

"The issue of congressional authority to influence the troop levels in Iraq has become an important part of the national debate about Pres. Bush's [desire to continue this war], and a wide range of opinion about that authority has been expressed by numerous elected officials and others," he notes.

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