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US Rep. Neal: War powers resolution will pass, curbing president’s power
SPRINGFIELD — With rising gas prices, a stalemate in the Strait of Hormuz and dissenting Republicans, Congress is getting ready to curtail President Donald Trump, said U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal.
“That war powers resolution is going to pass now in the House,” Neal said. “It’ll force a debate about priorities.”
Neal answered questions from reporters on Friday after traveling back from Washington for Springfield’s Memorial Day observance.
He’d been at the Capitol until after 6 p.m. Thursday, leaving only after Republican leaders pulled a war powers resolution from an expected vote — a vote they apparently feared they’d lose. The resolution would force President Donald Trump to withdraw from the war with Iran.
On Capitol Hill, patience with the war has worn thin as the stalemate in the Strait of Hormuz disrupts global shipping and elevates gas prices in the U.S. Another House war powers resolution nearly passed last week, falling on a tie vote as three Republicans voted in favor.
Pulling the vote prompted the ire of U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern, D-Worcester, who also represents parts of Hampshire and Franklin counties.
“You guys don’t have the guts or the balls to vote on this,” McGovern said in a rowdy House chamber.
On Friday in Springfield, Neal praised the performance of the military.
“But not to miss the point that there was never a plan. There was never a plan to go in; there was never a plan to leave,” Neal, a ranking Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, said. “And I think that’s part of what we face right now.”
Neal also pointed to pushback among Republicans in the Senate over Trump’s $1.7 billion fund to compensate people he feels were wrongly prosecuted, including Jan. 6 insurrectionists.
Republicans, Neal said, are also pushing back against spending on a White House ballroom.
“What’s misunderstood is that just as he’s become even more powerful in the Republican Party, he now is down 3 to 1 with independent voters, and Democrats are completely united,” Neal said. “Republicans are starting to fracture, because they don’t like the things he’s done with the (primary) endorsements.”
Presidents rarely, if ever, endorse challengers to their own party’s incumbents. Trump has done so numerous times, starting after he left office in 2021 and continuing in his second term.