Directing the President Pursuant to Section 5(C) of the War Powers Resolution to Remove United States Armed Forces From Unauthorized Hostilities in the Islamic Republic of Iran

Floor Speech

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Mr. ROGERS of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

I rise in strong opposition to this resolution.

The intelligence is clear that Iran was attempting to rebuild its nuclear program. Iran was developing missiles that could place American bases in the region and our homeland at risk.

The rapid expansion of Iranian missiles and drones posed an immediate threat to U.S. forces and partners in the region.

Iran's missile and drone arsenal acted as a conventional shield to its nuclear program. Faced with this threat, the President sought diplomatic solutions, but the Iranian regime refused to abandon their pursuit of a nuclear weapon. They refused to limit their ballistic missile arsenal, and they refused to rein in their terrorist proxies.

Only when it became clear that Iran would not agree to a peaceful resolution did President Trump take decisive action and lawful action to protect the American people.

As Secretaries Rubio and Hegseth have repeatedly explained, this is a limited military operation with clearly defined objectives.

Those objectives are: Number one, to destroy the Iranian missile drone and defense infrastructure posing a threat to U.S. forces and partners in the region; and, number two, to degrade Iran's industrial capacity to produce additional drones and missiles; and, number three, to destroy Iranian naval assets with the capacity to threaten U.S. forces and the free flow of commerce through the region.

Achieving these objectives will ensure Iran can no longer threaten the U.S. or our allies.

Past administrations have allowed the threat from Iran to grow and fester to the problem we have now. President Trump took decisive action to end the threat and restore the credibility of American deterrence.

At this time, we should be focused on ensuring our warfighters have the resources and capabilities they need to succeed in this operation. We should not pass any resolution that will end this critical operation before achieving these military objectives. Doing so would needlessly risk the lives of American servicemembers and American allies.

Mr. Speaker, I ask all Members to pray for the safety of our men and women in uniform and honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. I also urge my colleagues to oppose this resolution.

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