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The War Powers Act, enacted in&nbsp;1973,&nbsp;limits the&nbsp;President&#8217;s ability to deploy U.S.&nbsp;armed forces&nbsp;without first seeking approval from the U.S. Congress.&nbsp;

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It also&nbsp;requires the President to&nbsp;notify Congress&nbsp;within&nbsp;48 hours&nbsp;if he deploys members of the armed forces, and to withdraw those troops from conflict&nbsp;within&nbsp;60 days,&nbsp;unless Congress authorizes continued action.&nbsp;The legislation was a response to a secret bombing campaign by President Richard Nixon during the Vietnam War.&nbsp;&nbsp;

The War Powers Act&nbsp;is an extension of a debate that has been ongoing since the Founding. How do you balance the&nbsp;need for immediate action in times of crisis, which is the role of the executive,&nbsp;with&nbsp;the&nbsp;deliberation necessary to ensure&nbsp;decisions are sound and the views of all the American people are represented, which is the role of Congress?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

A Study on War Powers&nbsp;

The Bill of Rights Institute offers several resources on the War Powers Act to foster&nbsp;classroom discussion&nbsp;around this debate. Including in one of our newest curricula,&nbsp;<a href="https://billofrightsinstitute.org/activities/case-study-presidential-war-powers/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Government and Politics: Civics for the American Experiment</a>.&nbsp;This case study helps students understand how&nbsp;presidential war powers expanded over time, using both the&nbsp;aforementioned example&nbsp;and the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1964, which gave President Lyndon B. Johnson authorization&nbsp;to conduct military operations in Vietnam without seeking approval from Congress.&nbsp;

The study&nbsp;also discusses the Authorization for Use of Military Force, which were congressional resolutions enacted in 2001 and 2002 after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.&nbsp;The 2001 resolution allowed President George W. Bush to target the parties responsible for the terrorist attacks, and the 2002 resolution authorized military action against Iraq.&nbsp;

Lessons on War Powers&nbsp;

BRI’s&nbsp;<a href="https://billofrightsinstitute.org/lessons/lyndon-johnson-richard-nixon-and-the-war-powers-resolution/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Presidents and the Constitution curriculum</a>&nbsp;also addresses the War Powers Act&nbsp;and asks if&nbsp;it&nbsp;takes&nbsp;too much power away from the&nbsp;President, or&nbsp;takes&nbsp;too much power away from Congress. It includes handouts&nbsp;on Johnson and Nixon’s efforts during the Vietnam War and goes back to 1787, when the Constitutional Convention debated the addition of war powers to&nbsp;the U.S. Constitution.&nbsp;

Students can also assume the roles of President of the United States or a member of the U.S. Senate or House of Representatives&nbsp;<a href="https://billofrightsinstitute.org/activities/handout-e-debate-identity-slips-war-powers-resolution/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">in this special activity</a>&nbsp;and debate the merits of going to war and who should have the power to declare it.&nbsp;

Other lessons on war powers can be found in our resources,&nbsp;such as&nbsp;<a href="https://billofrightsinstitute.org/curricula/documents-of-freedom/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Documents of Freedom</a>, and in&nbsp;our&nbsp;<a href="https://billofrightsinstitute.org/videos/the-politics-of-war-powers-with-sarah-burns-bri-scholar-talks/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BRI Scholar Talks videos</a>.&nbsp;

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Duration	3 min

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The Delicate Balance of the War Powers Act