Rigell joining Kaine effort to authorize force against ISIL
Rep. Scott Rigell, R-Virginia Beach, is joining Sen. Tim Kaine's efforts to getCongress to formally authorize the use of military force against the Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS.
Rigell and Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., are introducing a companion bill to the one Kaine and Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., introduced this summer, and which still has not been taken up by the Senate.
“I feel very strongly about this,” Rigell said. “We need to have this difficult debate.”
He said he had a sharp reminder of why over the weekend, at a dinner for 200 Gold Star families at the Founders Inn in Virginia Beach.
“I think about our men and women (in the military) and the sacrifices they make for us,” he said. “They're the ones who could be dropped into a Syrian village at 2 a.m.”
Service men and women battling IS need to know the nation is behind them, he said.
And the Islamic State needs to know it, too.
“They need to know that we are resolved and we are unified,” he said.
Rigell said he hopes the effort he and Welch are making, to turn the issue into a bipartisan one in both House and Senate, will make sure the Islamic State gets that message.
Rigell and Kaine have spoken up repeatedly on the need for such authorization, saying it is required by the Constitution, and by America's obligations to service men and women who may end up in battles against the Islamic State.
Kaine, Rigell, Flake and Welch have proposed an authorization that says the purpose of military force against the Islamic State is narrow: to protect the lives of U.S. citizens and to provide military support to regional partners.
For Rigell, the key section is the one that says the use of significant U.S. ground troops in combat against the Islamic State, except to protect lives of U.S. citizens from imminent threat, is not consistent with such purpose.
It strikes the right constitutional balance between Congress' job — to authorize the use of force — and the president's responsibility as commander in chief, Rigell said.
“I think it gives him enough running room — a commander in chief needs that, history tells us what a commander in chief needs,” he said.
Rigell said he believes the best way for the United States to confront the Islamic State is through air power, but it might be necessary to have troops on the ground — that's why the word “significant” matters, in Rigell's view.
He said he's working to convince other representatives to support the measure. Some of the opposition he's found is from Republicans who don't want to vote on an authorization because they don't like how President Barack Obama is dealing with the Islamic State. Some is from members of Congress who fear how the Islamic State would react if Congress did not authorize the use of force, Rigell said.
Earlier this week, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, told Speaker of the House Paul Ryan that few members of Congress wanted to authorize war, The New York Times reported.
If Congress did approve, the Kaine-Rigell proposal says the authorization would expire after three years unless Congress formally votes to extend it.
