WATCH: Murkowski questions Hegseth on Trump 'restarting' the clock on the Iran war

[00:00:00]look at the war powers resolution and it's, it's, it's not ambiguous.

[00:00:03]It requires the president to terminate hostilities within 60 days, absent congressional authorization. So hostilities began February 28th, um, uh, May 1st, um, Congress was informed that hostilities had ended, but yet despite the fact that that hostilities had ended.

[00:00:25]We were still seeing sailors being fired upon um uh still activity then in June. MOU is signed to preserve the ceasefire while negotiations continue, that MOU has now collapsed, and we are seeing the resumed attacks in in the Straits of Hormuz. On July 10th, the administration sends Congress a new war powers notification effectively starting restarting, excuse me, the 60 day clock again. So I'm concerned about this sequence because you have a situation where the claim essentially allows the president to extinguish the war powers clock just at the moment that it becomes legally inconvenient through declaration of temporary ceasefire, then its reset, avoiding the congressional authorization that the Constitution requires and the war powers intense.

[00:01:18]So we had an opportunity in previous uh probations hearing for me to ask if you felt the administration had all the authority that it needed. You indicated at that time that no uh it additional authority was not needed. Are you, are you still, is the administration still taking that position about needing no authorization from Congress at this time. Senator, I know there's a long long standing legal, legal debate on this particular topic. What we certainly as a department take the share the position of the White House that we have all the authorities necessary at this moment.

[00:01:55]So, so let me just kind of do a follow on. Um, uh, in the Clinton administration, this is 1999, there was an operation that was launched Operation Allied Force, NATO airstrikes against Yugoslavia. There was not a prior congressional authorization that was sought President Clinton notified Congress under the war powers resolution, um, and then uh sent uh subsequent to that sent Congress an emergency supplemental funding request was about $6 billion to cover the cost of Kosovo operations. Congress then passed a supplemental package that that covered the president's request plus additional military funding, but Congress never pass ed a standalone authorization for use of military force in in Kosovo. When the war powers clock was set to run out then in May of 1999, the Clinton justice uh department's Office of Legal Counsel issued an opinion holding that the supplemental appropriation itself passed without any authorizing language, satisfied the war powers resolution requirement. So is the department looking to that or intending to rely on that same reasoning that funding alone can substitute for explicit congressional authorization. Senator, I would, I would have to defer to our, to our legal department and we'll get back to you with our views on that. But as of right now, we think standalone Article 2 authorities exist for us to conduct this operation on behalf of the Defense of the American people that the president has those authorities and seeking this funding is important in pursuit of that and our $1.5 trillion dollar budget, but I wouldn't connect the two without consulting with our legal folks first.