They often cant do that. What often happens is the president acts through history, the president has acted and Congress Even where many of them may disagree with his use of power have been unable to muster the political will to check him. That creates a precedent for future action. A recent example of that is libya. In libya, we were involved in 2011 in bottoming libya. Many congress spoke out against that. The president was in violation of his war powers but no action evolved to curb his activity in that case. What weve seen over time is power evolving toward the president. This doesnt mean that the congress is no longer important at all in in area. They still have a significant role to play primarily flowing from the idea that they are the orally the branch of our government that is supposed to declare war. We dont declare war anymore. Thats become obsolete since the 1940s but we have modern day equivalents of that. Theres still a role for congress in determining when we use force. T