Unanimous Consent Request--S. Res. 741
Floor Speech
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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I have read and reread the Senator from Kansas's resolution. As best I can determine, it is a declaration of war. For that reason, it should be taken very seriously. He says, in the earliest stages of the preamble, to express the sense of the Senate regarding the constitutional right of State Governors to repel the dangerous ongoing invasion at the U.S. southern border.
The operative language at the end of his resolution on this decoration of war relates to a provision in the Constitution which is rarely quoted. It is section 10 of article I. I would like to read it into the record. It says:
No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.
I am trying to understand the thinking of the Senator from Kansas, but here is the best I could come up with. He says that what is happening at the southern border with our immigration issues is, in his words, ``actual invasion of the United States.'' And then goes on to say:
Governors of all 50 States possess the authority and power as Commander in Chief of their respective States to repel the invasion described in paragraph 2.
So as best I can determine, the Senator from Kansas is suggesting that each Governor has the power to initiate military action. It doesn't say who the enemy will be or who the target will be. But according to this provision in the Constitution, these Governors can enter into compacts with other States for this military action or with a foreign power.
I don't know if the Senator from Kansas has thought this through, this idea that the State of Kansas would team up with the State of Arizona and declare war on Nicaragua. Is that what he is thinking because Nicaraguans are presenting themselves to the border? I would suggest that I have never seen a declaration of war that calls on the States to take such action, and the only time--the only precedent in our history was a sad one that involved the Civil War in the United States.
I don't know if the Senator is anticipating similar State action-- State by State or combination of States--attacking a foreign power.
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