The War Powers Resolution of 1973 (also known as the War Powers Act) “is a congressional resolution designed to limit the U.S. president’s ability to initiate or escalate military actions abroad.” As part of our system of governmental “checks and balances,” the law aims to check the executive branch’s power when committing U.S. military forces to an armed conflict without the consent of the U.S. Congress. It stipulates the president must notify Congress within 48 hours of military action and prohibits armed forces from remaining for more than 60 days.
So yeah.. he can for up to 60 days.
“So yeah.. he can for up to 60 days.”
No, not really. That act was in fact designed to do just the opposite, trying to stop the President from doing end runs around the Constitutional requirement for Congress to declare war, as had previously happened in Korea and Vietnam, when the Presidents called them “police actions” or “peacekeeping missions”.
If you read the text of the act, there is not one word that cedes Congress’ consitutional power to declare wars to the President, not even for a temporary period, and in fact, the act explicitly reinforced that this was a power reserved to Congress alone in section 1541.a:
“(c) Presidential executive power as Commander-in-Chief; limitation
The constitutional powers of the President as Commander-in-Chief to introduce United States Armed Forces into hostilities, or into situations where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances, are exercised only pursuant to (1) a declaration of war, (2) specific statutory authorization, or (3) a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces.”
So as you see, the only “emergency” that act authorized the President to act upon without prior Congressional approval is specified in part 3, which is limited to defense against an attack, which is a power the President already had since the Constitution actually mandates that the President defend the country as Commander-in-Chief. No new powers at all were given to the President by this act, only more specific limitations and regulations on his existing powers.