A bipartisan crew is ramping up efforts to push for a vote on the repeal of war authorizations this month, as Congress seeks to claw back power for going to war from the executive branch.
“These legal authorities have been used time and time again, by successive presidents to wage war well-beyond the scope of what Congress originally intended,” said Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), a Senate candidate in California and the lone vote against the authorization for use of military force in the days after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The Senate in March passed legislation that would repeal Congress’ 1991 and 2002 authorizations for military action in Iraq, but the House has yet to act on those repeals.
A bipartisan sextet of House lawmakers, led by Lee and Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), urged McCarthy to take up the Iraq repeals this month, as well as a separate measure to repeal a broad 1957 authorization for military action in the Middle East.
They said in a letter to Speaker Kevin McCarthy that while they support ongoing efforts by the House to revamp the “outdated and overly broad” 2001 authorization of the use of military force passed following the Sept. 11 attacks, “it cannot be allowed to delay the repeal of other outdated AUMFs.”
