When asked about what Congress should do with Iran, Sen. John Curtis immediately pivoted to talking about a memory during the Vietnam era, when he watched a group of young men go to his church leader’s office to draw straws.
As part of the exercise, one drew the straw that allowed him to serve a mission, while the others prepared themselves for the draft, he said during a press briefing in Salt Lake City on Wednesday.
“And in my opinion, that’s as close to a constitutional crisis as this country has had, because we were at war, and Congress never declared war,” Curtis said. “And ... it wasn’t a little war, right? We lost way too many people, and even those that came home, came home very damaged. And Congress never declared war.”
The memory of that era haunts him as he watches Congress fail to act on the war between the United States and Iran.
“To me, this is a big deal, and I feel that if there is justification for a war, Congress shouldn’t hide behind the president,” Curtis said.
During the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Congress passed authorizations for the Use of Military Force — referred to as AUMFs — giving the president permission to act.
Those wars were still seen as poorly prosecuted, even with Congress’ permission to act.
While Curtis supported the aims of the war, particularly the need to keep Iran from assembling a nuclear weapon, he believes President Donald Trump should have come and made his case to Congress and to America’s allies before acting.
He can’t undo that, he said. “But I can insist that Congress step up and define the terms of the war, and I’m looking for colleagues and allies who will join me in that.”
Curtis: ‘You can’t stop all activities’ in Iran
Now, he’s frustrated by the inability to get his Senate colleagues on the same page.
“So far, everything that has been put up is not really serious. It’s more of an attempt to poke the president,” he said. “So for instance, ‘you must stop all activities immediately.’ Well, you can argue whether or not what he did was right, but you can’t stop all activities.”
He pointed to the need to keep the Strait of Hormuz open, and the bigger objective of keeping Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, “and giving the president the tools to do what Congress feels needs to be done.”
In order for an AUMF to pass, several Democrats would need to join the 53 Republicans in the Senate to pass it, which is a very heavy lift.
Curtis has said he wants to attach language providing limits for the administration on the war to any supplemental spending requests from the Pentagon.
The Pentagon has asked for $67 billion to cover the cost of the war in Iran, which Congress has so far failed to deliver.
In the meantime, there have been multiple reports that the nation’s munitions are running dangerously low, a claim the administration rejects.
Curtis said he’s had classified briefings and still doesn’t feel like he has a good sense of whether the country is in a munitions crisis. But he does worry that the U.S. is being stretched thin, and that could affect its ability to respond if there were other crises in the war.
“Are we ready if China invaded Taiwan tomorrow? Are we ready for that? If Iran, and Russia, and China, put more muscle into Russia and Ukraine. Are we ready for that?” he asked.
Overall, he said, he has “great concern about instability around the world,” but also the massive price tag for the war in Iran and the need to prepare for future conflict.
Is Curtis worried about the rise of socialism?
While Iran and passing spending bills is top of mind in Washington, voters ahead of the 2026 midterms are focused on issues around affordability — the rising cost of housing, groceries and healthcare.
Polls show mounting frustration with elected officials on these and other issues, as an historically high number of incumbent members of Congress have lost their primary reelection bids, with the number climbing recently into the double digits.
Another 2026 election phenomenon is the rise of the democratic socialists within the Democratic Party, including a surprising win by a democratic socialist candidate on Tuesday in Florida’s Senate race over a much-better funded opponent.
When asked about the increase in support for socialism this year, Curtis pointed to Utah’s new blue district, where former Congressman Ben McAdams beat out more progressive opponents to win the Democratic nomination.
“So that’s the most evidence I have that it’s not really here in Utah,” he said.
“But clearly, it’s an issue around the country, and I think here, again, it goes to people feeling like the government’s not listening, they’re not responding,” he said. “We’ve got to try something else.”
Also, he said, “those of us who do care about fiscal responsibility, who do care about capitalism, and who do care about our country, we’re not articulating that well, and instead we’re dwelling on other issues and we take the focus off of that.”