The constitutional battle over the Libya military mission is not over.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said today that President Obama's claim he does not need congressional authorization for Libya does not "pass the straight face test," and he raised the possibility of cutting funds for the operation.

In a report submitted to Congress yesterday, White House attorneys said the Libya mission is not subject to the 1973 War Powers resolution because the United States is in a support role to NATO forces.

"U.S. operations do not involve sustained fighting or active exchanges of fire with hostile forces, nor do they involve the presence of U.S. ground troops, U.S. casualties or a serious threat thereof, or any significant chance of escalation into a conflict characterized by those factors," the report said.

Boehner noted that the United States provides logistical support for drone attacks and airplane bombings of Moammar Gadhafi's compound in Tripoli, and those certainly amount to hostilities.

The Republican speaker said the House may discuss limiting U.S. spending for the NATO-led operation, perhaps as early as next week.

In response, White House press secretary Jay Carney said this afternoon that there have been at least 41 consultations with Congress about Libya, adding "I don't anticipate further elucidation" about Obama's reasoning about the War Powers resolution.

He noted that Boehner called the resolution "constitutionally suspect" in 1999, even though it was being sidestepped by a Democratic president, Bill Clinton, at the time during military action in the Balkans.

Carney said Obama worked with White House attorneys in drafting Wednesday's report. "As a constitutional lawyer himself ... he owns this document," Carney said.

The administration provided the first financial estimates of the Libya operation, saying it would cost $1.1 billion by the end of the year.

The White House position certainly won't satisfy the 10 bipartisan House members who sued the administration Wednesday, claiming the Libya action is an illegal war.

"We have asked the courts to move to protect the American people from the results of these illegal policies," said Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, one of the House plaintiffs.

White House officials said the United States is acting in Libya in accordance with a United Nations resolution pledging to protect Libyan citizens from attacks by Gadhafi's forces.

The U.S. role has been limited to surveillance, intelligence, assistance to bombing runs and other things not related to the War Powers resolution.

"We're not engaged in any of the activities that typically over the years in war powers analysis is considered to constitute hostilities within the meaning of the statute," said White House counsel Bob Bauer.

He said:

"We're not engaged in sustained fighting. There's been no exchange of fire with hostile forces. We don't have troops on the ground. We don't risk casualties to those troops. None of the factors, frankly, speaking more broadly, has risked the sort of escalation that Congress was concerned would impinge on its warmaking power."

Even lawmakers who generally support the Libya operation said they are surprised Obama hasn't gone ahead and requested congressional authorization, saying he could probably get it.

"The way the administration handled this entire affair left people on both sides of the aisle very perplexed," said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.