Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. Speaker, I listened with considerable interest to the exposition just given by our colleague. I find myself in agreement with much of what was said, particularly the concerns, the unknowns, and the fact that this amendment is going to wind up in a CR, and we are going to be voting on the CR and the amendment, whether we like the amendment or not, or we shut down government. That causes me great concern.

My real concern is beyond just this amendment, limited as it is. And I thank the chairman for making this as limited--it ends sometime in December, I think December 11; that is good. The fact that the reporting is there; that is good. The fact that we are knowingly going to find ourselves right smack in the middle of a civil war that has gone on for 3 years and the previous 3 we couldn't figure out which side we wanted to be on and who we wanted to work with, apparently we now know who we want to work with, or at least we will find out who we want to work with. A lot of unknowns here, a lot of concerns.

The big concern is this, and that is that the administration presently does not intend to have the Congress of the United States carry out its constitutional responsibility to declare a war or not. They have figured out a way to avoid having the Congress deal with the most fundamental of issues.

They claim that the 2001-2002 authorization to use force in Afghanistan and in Iraq is sufficient to carry on what may be an unending war in Iraq and, quite possibly, in Syria. The War Powers Act has been pushed aside. We don't need to worry about that, says the administration. We don't have to vote because they have these other two authorizations to use force still in effect.

This is not right. This is a new war, a continuation of the problem that has existed in this area for more than 1400 years. So now it is in for a dime; we are going to be in for many, many dollars and many, many people.

My plea to the Congress, my plea to all my colleagues is this is not the step. This is but one small, little movement towards a much larger. And will we have the courage to carry out our constitutional responsibility and take up the larger issue of what to do with airstrikes and beyond?

For me, we ought to be voting on that larger issue. I believe the administration is dead wrong in saying they don't need to come back to Congress for a larger issue of an authorization to use force.

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