Virginia’s U.S. senators and at least one area congressman say Congress needs to vote on how to respond to the terrorist group carving out territory in Iraq and Syria and expanding its threat elsewhere.
After updating Lynchburg businesspeople on his stances toward world and Washington affairs and talking business innovation Friday, Senator Mark Warner said Congress should vote to address the threat posed by the Islamic State group, also called ISIS, ISIL and Daesh.
He has supported authorization to fight in Syria “for a long time.” He said after the attack in Paris last week, which authorities said is connected to IS, a broad international coalition may be possible.
“If there’s not a moment now after these barbaric acts of these murders for every civilized nation in this region, Russia, the West, all to come together against this common threat then I don’t know what would cause that kind of alliance,” Warner said.
After the Friday the 13th attacks killing about 130 people in Paris, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, repeated his call for Congress to take up the issue. His effort included an editorial in Time Magazine co-authored with Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Arizona, this week saying Congress has been silent too long on its congressional power to declare war.
Obama launched an air campaign against IS 16 months ago with 3,600 U.S. troops deployed to fight against IS, the editorial said. The U.S. has spent $5 billion and flown 6,200 air strikes, but the threat has grown, it said.
Kaine and Flake introduced a bill in June that would authorize force “as a starting point for debate.” For the limited campaign, Obama has relied on an Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) to avenge those responsible for the 9/11/2001 attacks and a 2002 authorization to invade Iraq.
“What we’ve done is sat on the sidelines and criticized, but we have not been willing to vote to authorize what’s going on, vote to stop what’s going on or vote to refine or revise what’s going on,” Kaine said on the Senate floor this week, according to a press release.
A plan produced by Obama in February calls for repeal of the 2002 AUMF and the three-year limit to fight IS, according to the White House website. A sunset provision would have required reexamination by Congress after three years.
Congress has not voted whether to authorize military force to fight the Islamic State group.
“At least at this moment, the Democrats don’t control Congress,” Warner said. “I have been dismayed that many of the majority party in Congress, they want to be critical of the president, but they’re not willing to go ahead and say, ‘Let’s go ahead and have this debate on the House floor and the Senate about how we ought to use military force, to what extent and under what conditions,” Warner said.
On Nov. 4, a group of 35 legislators sent a letter telling Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, that the House should vote on U.S. involvement in the war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Others have called for the vote as well.
In a phone interview Friday, Rep. Robert Hurt, who represents Campbell, Appomattox and Nelson counties and part of Bedford County, said he is “disappointed we have not taken this up.”
“Our job is to lead the debate on exactly what efforts should be taking place in Iraq and Syria,” Hurt said.
He and Kaine emphasized that it is Congress’ constitutional authority to declare war.
“I absolutely agree with Sen. Kaine and have from the beginning that this president should not be prosecuting a war in Syria and Iraq without the explicit authorization of use of military force by Congress,” Hurt said.
Hurt said, though, the president needs to lay out a plan to identify goals, a means to achieve them, and a definition of what “victory” would mean.
In an emailed statement to the News & Advance, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-6th, also put the onus on Obama.
“I am open to debating an AUMF, but the first step is for the President to come up with a clear and concise plan. You can’t fight ISIS effectively without a plan,” said Goodlatte, who represents Lynchburg, Amherst County and part of Bedford County.
Hurt said he couldn’t speak for leadership, but hopes with the transition from former Speaker John Boehner to Ryan, would mean a vote on the issue.
“I think we should expect it, and I think we should continue to advocate for it, and that’s what I will continue to do,” Hurt said.
Such a debate would likely include the breadth, scope and duration for the AUMF.
Warner said he would support an AUMF as long as it wasn’t “open-ended.” He added that the fight against ISIL should include a broad coalition, including Muslim nations in the region. Working with Russia became more likely after the terrorist group claimed to take down a Russian plane with a bomb in Egypt last month killing over 200 people, he said.
“That should be what the debate is about, how long, how broad a grant of force. But the idea that we have been fighting for years in this region without Congress being willing to take a stand is frankly an embarrassment,” Warner said.
