Sen. Ted Cruz is pointing out that on Monday, the 60 days for military intervention under the War Powers Resolution should run out since the start of operations in Iraq against ISIS.  

The Texas Republican wrote in an opinion piece for National Review that President Barack Obama should bring Congress back now that the clock has run its course.  

“Given that 60 days has expired, the president should come to Congress and get proper authorization for this new military action (with an official name for the operation). He should lay out clear, defined military objectives. Congress, as a united body, should reject every attempt from hostile actors such as Iran to exploit our mission for their own gain,” Cruz wrote. “And we must abandon the fantasy that the Syrian moderate rebels will be our proxy army in this fight and prioritize instead working with the Kurdish forces who are also focused on ISIS.” Cruz’s request would require action by leadership, given the formal adjournment for the election. The adjournment deal superseded earlier procedural action by the House for how to handle one of the War Powers 60-day deadlines if no adjournment resolution had been agreed to by the two chambers.  

The House previously adopted a rule for consideration for a pair of bills before the pre-election recess, it included language effectively stopping time — permissible because of the authority of a chamber to govern its own proceedings. But that would have dealt only with the deadline setting up expedited consideration of measures to remove troops (rather than authorize the use of force).  

The rules provision would have allowed for better management of a scenario in which a lawmaker opposed to deploying forces tried to offer a resolution, which is obviously not possible while the House and Senate are adjourned, making that a moot point.  

In the National Review piece, Cruz outlined a set of reasons for Congress needing to come back for a new authorization, including saying the existing 2001 and 2002 authorities do not apply. That’s not the part of the  

Corrected 9:58 p.m. |
  Corrected to explain that the House-adopted language dealing with resolutions to order the withdrawal of troops, rather than to authorize the use of force, was negated by formal adjournment of the House and Senate.  

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