Senator Lisa Murkowski's bipartisan Iran Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), drafted alongside Senator Todd Young with a 9 May filing target, remained unfiled on 13 May . The AUMF had first stalled on 11 May without explanation ; its political rationale was then removed entirely by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's testimony on 12 May .
Hegseth testified under oath that Article 2 of the Constitution already covers the Iran strikes and that a Congressional AUMF is "unnecessary" 1 2. That argument collapsed the bipartisan vehicle Murkowski had spent weeks constructing. An AUMF exists to authorise what the executive has not yet claimed authority for; Hegseth's testimony placed the strikes firmly inside Article 2, making the AUMF a redundant instrument in executive-branch logic. An administration that argued itself out of the AUMF route simultaneously argued itself out of the legislative vehicle that would have imposed six limiting conditions on the war.
The causal chain is direct: Hegseth testimony on 12 May removed the AUMF's rationale; Murkowski's AUMF remained unfiled on 11 May and continued unfiled on 13 May ; Murkowski, left without a vehicle she had drafted, moved to the Democratic war-powers resolution instead. She did not invent the Democratic option on a whim; The Administration foreclosed her own option first.
Murkowski had also co-drafted the AUMF with Rand Paul ally Young and targeted a filing date that passed without action . With the AUMF stalled and WPR resolutions failing by one vote, Donald Trump faces no formal Congressional constraint on Iran operations through the 1 June WPR deadline . The war continues on Article 2 grounds, with no authorisation instrument filed and no limiting conditions codified.
