Firing Line with Margaret Hoover Can Congress be fixed? A Firing Line forum with Philip Wallach and Oona Hathaway
Apr 11, 2026
Oona Hathaway, Yale Law professor expert on war powers and executive limits, and Philip Wallach, AEI senior fellow and author on Congress, debate Congress’s decline and how to restore its role. They discuss war powers, presidential overreach, the Supreme Court’s shifting influence, polarization drivers, structural fixes like committee power, and ways young people can help rebalance Washington.
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Old AUMFs Power Widespread Modern Operations
- Modern US military actions often proceed without fresh congressional authorizations.
- Oona Hathaway points out the last AUMF votes were 2001 and 2002, yet operations now span roughly 80 countries under those old mandates.
Partisanship Erodes Congressional Independence
- Hyper-partisanship causes legislators to act as party team members first, eroding Congress's institutional prerogatives.
- Philip A. Wallach contrasts this with mid-20th-century norms where cross-ideological coalitions constrained presidents even within the same party.
Condition Military Funding On Legal Compliance
- Use Congress's power of the purse to enforce legal limits on military action.
- Oona Hathaway suggests conditioning troop and operational funding on compliance with the War Powers Resolution and constitutional requirements.
