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. MILLS. Mr. Speaker, the chairman is right. We just pointed to the three key things that you need in order to have lethal force against the United States. One is intent.

I think that Iran and the regime have made it very clear when they are chanting ``death to America,'' the thousands of lives they have changed with either maiming or killing American troops or civilians abroad, but also likelihood.

We know that they are able to build 100-plus missiles a day. We know they had ICBMs. We have now found out they had the hypersonic ballistic capabilities as they targeted over six different countries.

The thing we talk about, the JCPOA, as was just mentioned, Resolution 2231 where the administration tried to come up with an idea of a negotiation that led to diplomatic and peaceful solutions, was continually violated by this regime as even Secretary-Generals Ban Ki- moon and Guterres had pointed out multiple times as the Iranian regime sent mid-range ballistic missiles to the Houthis and to other areas to continue attacking Americans and the West.

The hypocrisy is what I really want to point out here, not the fact that we already understand the Article II authorities that the President has, which is well within the bounds constitutionally, not to mention the fact that this body, before I came into Congress, was already abdicating the roles and responsibilities under Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 when they started doing things like AUMFs.

Let us point to things like what we saw in Libya. It was very clear in 2011, as we see here in military intervention, that it was without prior congressional authorization, relying instead on a U.N. Security Council resolution and legal justification from the Department of Justice that argued that the administration had limited nonground troop missions and doesn't constitute hostilities. Mr. Speaker, that is exactly what we have here: no ground troops.

It also goes on further to justify under the United Nations mandates, international mandates, and the legal justification to say that because they were focused on protecting civilians, not sustained fighting and didn't involve ground troops. I don't know about you, but I think 40- plus Iranian civilians, peacefully protesting for a change, being brutally murdered, being raped, being tortured, being slaughtered, being hung from cranes, being persecuted and imprisoned--I think President Trump stopping this after 47 years was protecting civilian lives.

I think it is established that we had no boots on the ground. I think that we have demonstrated the imminence, the likelihood, and intent of an evil regime to try and go ahead and attack Americans and threaten our way of life.

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