WASHINGTON — Democrats and a few Republicans let out their frustrations Tuesday with the last-minute postponement of classified briefings for lawmakers about the weekend military strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities amid media reports that leaked intelligence findings indicate the U.S. assault delayed, but did not destroy, Iran’s ability to build a nuclear weapon.

Top administration officials from the intelligence community, State Department and the Pentagon, including Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, were supposed to deliver briefings to the full House and Senate about the justification and ramifications of President Donald Trump’s decision to launch strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities.

Senate Democrats are working to build consensus among their ranks in support of a war powers joint resolution from Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., that would prohibit any offensive U.S. military attacks against Iran if Congress has not issued a declaration of war or a new authorization for use of military force. The resolution is expected to come up for a vote as soon as Thursday while a similar war powers measure in the House could be stymied by GOP leaders when it ripens for a floor vote in July.

After Tuesday’s intelligence briefings were postponed, The New York Times and CNN reported that a preliminary classified report from the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency concluded that the U.S. airstrikes, which dropped multiple “bunker buster” bombs on Iran’s Fordo uranium enrichment facility, did not completely destroy the structures inside, which were built deep inside a mountain.

The New York Times reported that Iran’s ability to enrich enough uranium to fuel a nuclear bomb has likely been set back by less than six months, rather than “obliterated” as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stated on Sunday.

The report also suggested that a substantial amount of Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium was likely relocated to an unknown area prior to the U.S. airstrikes, a finding that aligns with commercial satellite imagery analyzed by independent experts with the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies.

Analysts have pointed out trucks parked at the entrance of Fordo and another uranium site at Isfahan in the days before the U.S. bombings could indicate the Iranians were hauling away canisters of enriched uranium under the assumption the sites were about to be bombed.

The Trump administration has offered Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to deliver a classified briefing to senators on Thursday. Both are attending the NATO summit in the Hague this week.

Lawmakers, though, said they were worried the Cabinet secretaries would not be able to provide details about the physical impacts of the strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites as well how much nuclear material was destroyed or how much may have been smuggled out.

“This last-minute postponement of our briefing is outrageous,” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters. “It’s evasive, it’s derelict. … Senators deserve full transparency. There is a legal obligation for the administration to inform Congress about precisely what is happening. What are they afraid of?”

Schumer is a member of the so-called Gang of Eight and entitled to be briefed within 48 hours of a presidential order of covert military action. He said he had yet to receive such a briefing except for a short call Saturday night notifying him that imminent action was being taken against an unnamed country, which turned out to be Iran.

Kaine told reporters he expects his war powers resolution to come to the floor Thursday for a vote, following the Senate intelligence briefing and before the chamber takes up the House-passed reconciliation bill.

Kaine is seeking to change his measure to clarify that the joint resolution would not restrict the president from defending against attacks on U.S. personnel overseas or U.S. bases in foreign countries, or from defending Israel from attacks by Iran or its proxies.

In the House, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has dismissed a bipartisan effort by libertarian-leaning Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and progressive Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., to bring a similar proposal to the floor. Johnson has argued that there should be no dispute the president acted legally in ordering the strikes.

House Democratic national security leaders pushed back sharply against Republicans’ defense of Trump and castigated the administration for delaying the intelligence briefings.

“We can only speculate as to why the administration canceled the briefing, but it certainly appears as though they’re afraid to answer questions about their policies and the president’s unverified claims that the strikes obliterated Iran’s nuclear program,” Reps. Gregory W. Meeks, D-N.Y., Adam Smith, D-Calif., and Jim Himes, D-Conn. — the ranking members, respectively, of the House Foreign Affairs, Armed Services and Intelligence panels — said in a joint statement.

Meanwhile, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, who previously chaired the Foreign Affairs Committee, said he was disappointed the House briefing had been delayed.

The briefings “need to come this week,” McCaul said, adding that he’d “like to hear more about the clear and imminent danger to the United States” that the administration argues the airstrikes were aimed at thwarting.

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