Newsletter: Do you Support an AUMF?

Statement

Dear Neighbor,

This week, Congress voted on the Keystone XL Pipeline Approval Bill, the second time this year that the House voted to approve this pipeline. This is the same bill that recently passed the Senate. It's about time to build this pipeline and increase our energy and national security. The bill now awaits the President's signature. The White House needs to put politics aside and help create American jobs and opportunities with this project.

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. Growing up, my kids always went to school and sold Valentines candy-grams to raise money for everything from new football uniforms to a school trip. But now the federal government is trying to send school bake sales into extinction. This unwanted and unnecessary executive overreach must be stopped. That is why I introduced H.R. 881, the BAKE SALE Act. This legislation would prohibit any funds from being used to implement USDA's new regulations on school fundraisers and bake sales during school hours. Washington bureaucrats have no business telling Americans, no matter what age, what they can and cannot eat.

With all of the focus on ISIS and the tragic murder of Kayla Mueller, the threat of terrorism at home and abroad remains on the front of all of our minds. On Wednesday, I chaired a hearing in the Terrorism Subcommittee that focused on the global tentacles of the biggest State Sponsor of Terrorism: Iran. As the Administration continues to "negotiate" with this enemy, Iran continues to fund and encourage terrorist attacks around the world. In my opinion, Congress should heighten sanctions against Iran, not loosen them because some suddenly think the wolf now wears sheep's clothing. The President is opposed to more sanctions against Iran, but I completely disagree. Iran is a State sponsor of terror and should be treated as such. America should not wait with anticipation, America should be proactive in dealing with Iran and its nuclear program.

Iran is not the only threat America faces. The barbarity of ISIS jihadists knows no bounds, as the world saw last week, and they are not about to stop. ISIS and its band of brutal terrorists will continue to kill in the name of religion. The President has said he wants to degrade and destroy ISIS, but what do we do to decimate them? This week, the President sent a draft Authorization for Military Force (AUMF) to Congress. It would replace the 2002 AUMF for Iraq and Afghanistan and replace it with a new authorization to use U.S. Armed Forces to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant for a three year period, which can be renewed, and it specifically, does not authorize "enduring offensive ground combat operations." The American people have yet to hear a clear strategy on how we will achieve success. The House Foreign Affairs Committee, on which I serve, will soon start its review over this request.

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