Removal of United States Armed Forces from Iraq and Syria

Floor Speech

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I thank Mr. McGovern for the time.

Mr. Speaker, as many people have said today, even those who are for the resolution and against the resolution, we have a constitutional duty. That duty is to debate. I want to quote James Madison, to put the context on what we are trying to say today: ``The power to declare war, including the power of judging the causes of war, is fully and exclusively vested in the legislature.'' Not the executive branch, but the legislature.

The frustration that we have felt goes back to August of 2014, when Jim McGovern and Barbara Lee and Walter Jones wrote asking the Speaker of the House to allow us to have a debate. That is why Mr. McGovern, Barbara Lee, and I have put this resolution in today, to force a debate. We wouldn't be talking about the Middle East if it weren't for this resolution.

In September, I sent my own letter to Speaker Boehner and asked for a full debate on an Authorization for Use of Military Force in the region. None of these letters have been answered. None of them. Last September, Speaker Boehner told The New York Times that he wanted to wait until 2015 to bring an AUMF to the floor of the House for a debate and a vote to avoid bringing it up during a lame duck session. Okay, I can accept that, that makes good sense. It does.

In December, Speaker Boehner said the House Republicans would work with the President to get an AUMF request approved if the President sent one to Congress. As Mr. McGovern just said, he did send us one in February. Most people--Democrat and Republican--didn't particularly like what was in the AUMF, but at least it was the vehicle for the debate. But then in February when the Speaker of the House received it, he didn't do anything with it. Nothing has happened.

As has been said by speakers before me, last month Jim McGovern, Barbara Lee, and I sent another letter to the Speaker of the House asking for a debate. Nothing happened. That is the reason this resolution is on the floor. It is because, as Madison said: House, do your job. He didn't say: Executive branch, do your job. He said the legislative branch. That is us. We need to do this on behalf of the Constitution and on behalf of our young men and women in uniform who will give their life for this country.

As has been said before me, it has been 314 days since President Obama started launching airstrikes and putting troops in Iraq and Syria without receiving the authorization by Congress. According to the Pentagon, we have spent over $9 million a day fighting ISIS, for a total of $2.7 billion. Isn't this another reason that we should be debating the Middle East and our role in the Middle East? I think so.

Let me repeat James Madison: ``The power to declare war, including the power of judging the causes of war, is fully and exclusively vested in the legislature.''

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In closing, Mr. Speaker, I would like to say that I bring these pictures to the floor of those who give their life for this country. This is a flag-draped coffin being pulled off a transport plane in Dover, Delaware, and it is time that we meet our obligation and debate this issue of war because we are not doing our job. We owe it to the American people, to the Constitution, and to those who wear the uniform.

I thank Mr. McGovern for the time.

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