War Powers Resolution

1973 U.S. federal law limiting the power of the president to declare war

The War Powers Resolution is a federal law intended to check the U.S. president's power to commit the United States to an armed conflict without the consent of the U.S. Congress. The resolution was adopted in the form of a United States congressional joint resolution. It provides that the president can send the U.S. Armed Forces into action abroad only by Congress’s statutory authorization", or in case of "a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces".

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