Kaine renews push for authorization of military force against the Islamic State

U.S. Sen. Timothy M. Kaine, D-Va., is urging Congress to debate and vote on authorizing the use of military force against Islamic State militants before the Dec. 11 recess.

“Allowing a president to conduct a unilateral military action that he himself has described as a war for six months without a vote in Congress would be really catastrophic,” Kaine said in a phone interview Tuesday. “It would be a huge overreach by the executive, but that overreach only happens if Congress decides to abdicate its responsibility.”

 Kaine said he is “very supportive” of a recent proposal by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who demanded last month that Congress formally declare war for the first time since World War II. Paul, a potential presidential candidate in 2016, plans to introduce a resolution before the end of this session to declare war against the Islamic State.

“I’ve met directly with Senator Paul, and I was encouraged by his decision to move forward,” Kaine said, adding that the Republican’s proposal is “almost identical” to his own measure from this summer, which asked Congress to authorize President Barack Obama to use “military force” against the Islamic State and other terrorist groups.

“I think my phrase is probably a more accurate description of that military action against a non-state actor,” Kaine said. “Many laws of war — the Geneva Conventions, for example — deal with states. Non-state actors, they don’t abide by Geneva Conventions regarding war. It’s a very different kind of a military action.”

Both proposals would end the 2002 authorization that led to the Iraq War, Kaine said. But Paul’s resolution would also set an expiration date for the 2001 measure that gives the president the authority to go after al-Qaida terrorists, and it would pin the war to a one-year time frame.

“We see this almost exactly the same, and we have talked about things we can do together,” Kaine said of Paul.

The Obama administration has used both former authorizations as backing for the U.S. bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria against the Islamic State.

Kaine plans to address the Senate again this week to push for a debate and vote before the end of the year.

In the House, Speaker John Boehner has said that he would prefer to debate the issue after the lame-duck period. But Kaine said congressional authorization to fight the militants could be folded into the annual National Defense Authorization Act.

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