Resolution, to Remove United States Armed Forces From Hostilities with Iran

Floor Speech

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Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I thank him for his courageous leadership in bringing this legislation to the floor.

We are the House of Representatives. Article I of the Constitution gives the power to declare war to the Congress of the United States. Why? Because we are the Representatives of the people of the United States, and it is important for the people of the United States to understand the reason why, the purpose, the strategy of it all, and also to approve of the use of force.

Of course, the President did not do that. For some reason, there are those in this body who are willing to abdicate the power of the House of Representatives and the Congress of the United States to declare war.

The greatest cost, of course, of this war is not just that the American people have not had the explanation, by way of the Congress having that explanation. The gravest cost is human. Thirteen brave American servicemembers have lost their lives, and hundreds more have been injured. More than a thousand civilians in the region have perished.

We all agree, of course, the cost is in the billions. The President said we can't do childcare because we have to spend money on war. We don't have to spend money on war.

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Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, we all agree that they cannot have a nuclear weapon. President Obama did that diplomatically. The current President threw that out and decided to go to war without a plan, without a strategy, without an exit plan, and, really, without even explaining his purpose to the American people.

I urge our colleagues to respect who they are, Members of Congress with the power to declare war, and insist on voting on this motion put forth by the distinguished, soon-to-be-chairman-again of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr. Meeks.

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