Congress just gave Trump the authority to send surface-to-air missiles to Syrian fighters

Russians will not be happy!

Okay, dumb question, but how can Congress give the President-elect any authority as of yet? He has yet to be sworn in as the POTUS thus, he is still President-elect which doesn't give him the power to do anything like this...yet.

We've done it for years. Befriend someone until we've gotten all the benefit we can from them and then declare them as a bad actor and go after them. Support for Iraq in their war vs. Iran and we know how that ended for Saddam many years later. Support for Afghans vs. Russia and then when they morphed into Taliban we went after them. Support for Noriega until banking ties for financing many "things" were slowly becoming public we lock him up. These examples are just a few and they weren't easily defined but the theory remains. Without a bad guy we can't justify defense spending. State works with Defense on what we sell and some countries only get a limited package. This is common with aircraft and missile systems. They will only let them have a watered down version minus some of the bells and whistles. Sell TOW missiles minus the platform so they mount them in Toyota pickups and call them a technical. Stingers and others like javelins have been a hot commodity for years and are a concern for sure.