Explainer-Can a new US Congress mean an end to the Iran war?

Detailed summary

WASHINGTON, Nov 12 - The American public wants the unpopular eight-month-long war on Iran to end, and showed it by handing President Donald Trump's Republicans a resounding defeat…

WASHINGTON, Nov 12 - The American public wants the unpopular eight-month-long war on Iran to end, and showed it by handing President Donald Trump's Republicans a resounding defeat in last week's congressional elections.

Trump acknowledged that unhappiness about the conflict contributed to his party's losses, but defends the war, both insisting that he has won it and saying it will continue.

Congress cannot unilaterally end the war, but can pressure the president to do so.

Here are some ways lawmakers in the new Congress — which is scheduled to be sworn in on January 3 — can push to end the fighting.

Under the US Constitution, Congress decides how federal funds should be spent. Trump has asked the House of Representatives and Senate to approve a huge increase in the defense budget — from about $950 billion to $1.5 trillion, plus an additional $67 billion for the war.

Democrats say they will not approve such a massive budget next year. But they also have proposed cutting off funding for the war even before the new Congress is seated, suggesting that anti-war Republicans or fiscal hawks concerned about the deficit might back them.

The current government funding bill expires on December 11, meaning Congress must pass a full-year budget or a short-term spending plan to avoid a shutdown right before Christmas, interfering with travel and putting thousands out of work.

"A Republican Congress is not going to send bills to a Republican president that he's going to veto, so if that's their (the Democrats') demand, well, we'll just wait until next year," Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, told reporters this week.

But once the Democrats control Congress, they can include clauses in budget bills forbidding the use of any funds for hostilities against Iran. Trump could issue vetoes, but would again risk a government shutdown, and potentially no pay for the troops themselves, in order to prolong the war.

Opening of the article, excerpted from The Straits Times. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.