WASHINGTON \u2014 Senate Foreign Relations Committee Democrats on Thursday sent a measure to the floor authorizing military operations in Iraq and Syria against the Islamic State. In a straight party line vote, 10-8, the committee approved an authorization of the use of military force (AUMF) crafted by its outgoing chairman, Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J. The measure would, if enacted in the 113th Congress’ 11th hour, provide legal authorization for the conflict for three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Panel Democrats voiced support for many of the measure’s provisions, saying Congress would be right to place some limitations on the executive branch’s war policies. Most of the debate during Thursday mark up of the bill and a Tuesday hearing on the matter was philosophical and strategic in nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Debate about the Islamic State was plentiful, too, focused mostly on whether or not Congress should limit its legal blessing to U.S. strikes in Iraq and Syria, how long to authorize operations, and the legislative branch’s proper role in declaring and running a war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Democrats \u2014 often joined by tea party darling Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. \u2014 were in favor of writing limitations on the Islamic State conflict into any AUMF that might pass. This camp is concerned about America being sucked into another protracted ground occupation like Iraq or Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Republicans are leery of, as several said, “tying the president’s hands” in conducting this or any military operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
GOP senators, however, joined their Democratic counterparts in voicing concerns about the ongoing conflict \u2014 but they directed their worries at President Barack Obama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Echoing comments from earlier this week by panel member Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Ranking Member Bob Corker, R-Tenn., warned Obama’s strategy “reeks of the incrementalism” of the Vietnam war era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Republicans also continued Thursday to oppose a provision in the measure that would limit what US ground forces could do against Islamic State militants. GOP members seem supportive of using American ground troops, even large numbers, in Iraq \u2014 and perhaps even eventually in Syria \u2014 against the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rather than “tie the president’s hands,” the opposition party seems inclined to give Obama whatever authorities he, and they, deem necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That includes keeping out of any AUMF any provisions that would limit the duration and geographic coverage of a legal war authorization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Only four other panel members voted for a Paul amendment that would have limited the measure’s legal authority to cover US operations in just Iraq and Syria. The likely 2016 presidential candidate argued a president could use the measure, as written, for military operations in up to 30 countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The committee also defeated, 6-12, an amendment offered by Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., that would have made it just a one-year AUMF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Menendez-written AUMF, obtained Tuesday by CongressWatch, “does not authorize the use of the United States Armed Forces for the purpose of ground combat operations except as necessary.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The measure would allow the use of American ground troops to rescue other US forces or citizens, as well as to conduct missions like intelligence collection, enabling “kinetic strikes” and providing “other forms of advice and assistance to forces fighting [Islamic State] in Iraq or Syria.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The draft AUMF would last three years, a timetable Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday told the committee the White House supports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The idea behind the AUMF’s three-year duration would be to reassess the fight against Islamic State at that time and craft a new measure befitting the situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Menendez added to his measure a provision crafted by Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., that would sunset the AUMF for operations against al-Qaida that passed in September 2001.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Menendez told CongressWatch during a break that Cardin’s measure would be subject to lawmakers re-authorizing the 2001 measure \u2014 and perhaps updating it \u2014 before December 2017, should both chambers pass the Menendez bill before it departs Thursday or Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said he is not worried that, if his measure were enacted, that provision could set up a situation in late 2017 under which the fight against al-Qaida would lose its legal underpinning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The chairman and Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who has been the chamber’s most vocal proponent of a measure to cover the Islamic State fight, said they hope Senate leaders will place the measure on the floor calendar before the chamber adjourns for the last time under Democratic control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That is not expected to happen, however.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The chairman’s AUMF also includes no language limiting the countries inside which President Barack Obama or future commanders in chief could launch operations targeting the violent Sunni group. Kerry on Tuesday gave the White House’s endorsement for that, as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meantime, the Menendez measure also would sunset the 2002 AUMF that Congress passed before the George W. Bush administration’s Iraq war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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