War Powers Resolution
Reporting Project

The War Powers Resolution (WPR) is a landmark statute passed after the Vietnam War. Its aim is to restore the constitutional balance between Congress and the President in deciding when the nation goes to war. To create the transparency necessary for achieving this goal, the WPR requires the President to notify Congress within 48 hours of introducing U.S. armed forces into hostilities, deploying combat-equipped forces, or substantially enlarging those deployments (“48-hour reports”).

This project creates the first publicly accessible, searchable database analyzing the contents of all unclassified 48-hour reports submitted to Congress since the WPR was enacted over 45 years ago (more than 100 in total). The living database enables us to assess key questions about presidential exercise of war powers: Where and why are Presidents deploying armed forces abroad? How often do Presidents rely solely on their own constitutional authority to do so, and is that authority being stretched? Has reporting fulfilled the WPR’s requirements? In what ways are the WPR’s requirements insufficient to inform Congress of how the President is using our armed forces abroad, and in what ways is the WPR succeeding in providing meaningful transparency? Answers to these questions illuminated by this project will help lay the foundation for future study and reform.