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President Donald Trump has set a two-week deadline before he’ll make a decision on U.S. involvement in the war between Israel and Iran. 

Members of Congress are watching the unfolding situation and Minnesota’s Democratic U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum is co-sponsoring a war powers resolution that would prohibit U.S. military involvement in Iran without congressional approval. 

Rep. McCollum is the minority ranking member of the 

House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense

. She joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer on Morning Edition to talk about U.S. policy on the conflict in the Middle East.  

The following has been lightly edited for clarity and length. Listen to the conversation by clicking the player button above.

Why is it important for Congress to have a say in the Iran, Israel situation?

Iran and Israel are at war with each other, and so we would be joining in taking sides on the war. We’ve made it very clear to Gulf nations, to the Congress, to Iran, that we will continue to support Israel with defensive measures. But these would be offensive measures, and it’s quite a difference and a change. 

The President can take strikes to protect our armed forces if they’ve been attacked. That has happened before in the past, but you know what the president is talking about is actually making a commitment of U.S. forces. After 48 hours of committing U.S. armed forces to military action, under the War Powers Act, the president has to come to Congress. So Congress should be involved in the front end. 

Former President George W. Bush did that with the Iraq War. I didn’t vote for that resolution, but we spent two weeks, we had hearings, we figured out the human cost to our military going into that conflict, as well as what it was going to mean to our economy and who would be with us in this endeavor when they went into the Iraq to look for nuclear weapons. Of course, as we know, they didn’t find any. 

Congress wants to be engaged. This involves the lives of our service men and women. As well as our economy — which is very fragile.

Do you agree with the President that Iran can't get a nuclear weapon? Because in this case, we're talking about a nuclear weapon as part of this conflict, and the one nation that could stop that from happening is the United States. Would you agree with the president on that? 

One nation that was working on stopping that from happening was the United States in 2015. Working with the Obama administration, I was over in the White House. I was part of working on getting the negotiations and the votes for it, and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which was the agreement, was ripped to shreds in President Trump’s first term. 

We had a track to do that, and if we had left that in place, I would have worked hand-in-hand with any president of the United States who wanted to take it the step farther and add ballistic missiles, too — which was not part of the agreement. But President Trump just ripped the whole thing up and now, he’s trying to do it from scratch with two week deadlines here, two week deadlines there. 

That’s not that is not how we should be conducting national affairs of such significance that would put our service men and women’s lives in jeopardy, in harm’s way.

U.S. Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., told NPRthat there too many unknowns that could put American troops in harm’s way. Do you feel that way as well?

that there too many unknowns that could put American troops in harm’s way. Do you feel that way as well?

I feel that way as well. This could really spread wide open. And we still have a raging conflict in Ukraine, between Russia. China is threatening Taiwan, taunting that it’s going to take Taiwan by force at a certain date. Then we have what is going on in Gaza and the West Bank. 

We don’t need to be adding more fuel to the fire. We need to be adding diplomacy.

The Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war. Do you feel your colleagues, Republicans and Democrats, have the political will to step in and insist on approving U.S. involvement in this war?

I think one of the reasons why you saw President Trump pull back the way that he did is his conference in the U.S. House of Representatives is extremely divided on this. And the Democratic caucus that I belong to, we are not seeking more. We’re seeking diplomatic solutions. And we’re committed to making sure that our service men and women, when they are put in harm’s way, they’re put in harm’s way with the full support of our nation. And our objectives and goals are clear, and they’re in our nation’s self-interest.

Where do you think the resolution stands?

There are parliamentary procedures that can be used this week. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., can go down and trigger to get a vote on it. He’ll have the support of almost the entire Democratic caucus, maybe not 100 percent because we are an independent caucus. 

I think in the Republican conference, he’ll pick up quite a few votes. I think it could be very close that we could trigger a floor debate on it — possibly this week or next week.

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Minnesota Rep. Betty McCollum talks with MPR News host Cathy Wurzer about U.S. policy on the conflict between Israel and Iran. 

McCollum explains resolution that would keep the U.S. from entering the war with Iran

McCollum explains resolution that would keep the U.S. from entering the war with Iran

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