Providing for Consideration of H.J. Res. 68, Authorizing Limited Use of Armed Forces in Libya; and Providing for Consideration of H.R. 2278, Limiting Use of Funds for Armed Forces in Libya
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. GARAMENDI. I thank the gen tle lady from New York for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, we are later this morning going to be engaged in one of the most important tasks of Congress, and that is what to do about war. Unfortunately, the administration--and I think they would agree to this--didn't adequately engage Congress in the process running up to the beginning of the Libya conflict and didn't sufficiently engage during the course of it. We are now in a position where we will be making some decisions today about how we want this Nation to proceed, whether we want to proceed with a full-on war or with limited or much more limited activity with regard to the support of NATO in the Libya fight.
Unfortunately, all of this is now being rushed upon us here on the last day just before the break for the 4th of July. The amount of time to debate this on the floor is far too limited. It would have been our preference on the Democratic side to have had a more full discussion along the lines that the gen tle lady from New York discussed in her opening comments--a full-on discussion about how we are to proceed. We are basically going to have two options, both of them with inadequate discussion. I guess we're down to that point now where we have no more alternative but to use the 1 hour, so here we are debating this issue at this moment.
For me, there is a very important principle that was enunciated by the United Nations, which is the obligation to defend and protect. That was the basic rationale for this country moving forward with the Libya operation. Yes, the President should have come to us early. He should have come to us at the very beginning and allowed Congress to carry out its constitutional obligations, ``yes'' or ``no.'' But here we are. The obligation or the right or the necessity to defend is very important. That's why we're there. We need to provide the President with the necessary powers to carry out that obligation in a very limited period of time. We'll see that this afternoon or later this morning with the Hastings amendment.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source