Her. Tim Kaine
Timothy (Tim) Michael Kaine Warner: White House Must ‘Hold Additional Sanctions’ Against Saudi Crown Prince Night Defense: Biden Sends Message Air Strike in Syria | American information points to the murder of the Saudi crown prince in Khashoggi | Pentagon Launches Citizen-Led Sexual Assault Commission Biden Administration To Give Congress Full-Secret Briefing On Strike In Syria By Next Week MORE (D-Va.), A longtime advocate for giving Congress more power over a president’s ability to wage war unilaterally, says he will begin this week withdrawing or changing Congressional permissions that have been used to justify numerous foreign military conflicts over the past two decades.
Kaine, who expressed frustration that Congress had not been notified earlier President Biden
Joe Biden Senate Democrats negotiating changes to coronavirus law Rural Americans are the future of the clean energy economy – policymakers must catch up WHO official says it is ‘premature’ to think pandemic will end by year’s end will be over MORE approved airstrikes in Syria last week, lawmakers said they are reclaiming some of their war force authority. It plans to table a bipartisan resolution to revoke the 1991 and 2002 permissions for the use of military force against Iraq.
“I just strongly believe – and this goes back to the drafting of the Constitution and its earliest views – is that if a president defends himself against an ongoing attack or an impending attack, the president has one-sided power and which is good. But the idea of insulting groups is traditionally where you should come to Congress, ”he said.
The senator said he was “completely unaware” of the Syrian strike and neither were “many of the people” in Congress who should have been consulted.
Kaine was also the sponsor of a joint resolution regulating the removal of US forces from hostilities against Iranian forces not authorized by Congress. President Trump
Donald Trump Prosecutors Focus Trump Organization Investigation on Company Financial Official: WHO official report says it is “ premature ” to think pandemic will be over by year’s end. vetoed last year.
Biden last week ordered air strikes on Iranian-backed militias in Syria that hit “multiple facilities” and resulted in nearly two dozen deaths, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Pentagon described the attack as “proportionate” and “defensive” after US forces in Iraq were attacked with a missile, killing a civilian contractor.
“This is the beginning of a government, and it is a government where, because President Biden was the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that has jurisdiction over issues of war power, he would do more than most, more than virtually anyone else. need to understand that Article I branch should play a role here, so I’m going to insist, ‘said Kaine, referring to the legislature.
Kaine said Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday he will “likely table a bipartisan resolution with Republican colleagues that would revoke the two Iraq authorizations, Gulf War I and then Iraq ’02.”
Congress is not repealing these things. We pass them and they just float around there to be used – they can be used in naughty ways to justify actions long after the original crisis is over, ”he said.
He said the first step is to withdraw “unnecessary” permissions to use military force, such as the two resolutions that Congress has passed against Iraq, and then work to update and reform the 2001 authorization for the use of military force against “those nations, organizations”. or persons ”who planned, authorized or assisted the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
The 2001 authorization was used to deploy US troops to Afghanistan in October of that year, and the military conflict against Al Qaeda and the Taliban has spread to other countries such as Pakistan, Syria, Somalia, Libya and Yemen.
Kaine says “step three” is to update the 1974 War Powers Act.
“This example shows us that the War Powers Act of 1974 is just not enough in terms of consultation, so I have a bill to rewrite the War Powers Act, a longer-term reform that I believe we will also introduce into the first of the year with Republican colleagues, ”he said.
Kaine said he expects to speak with Biden government officials on Tuesday afternoon about last week’s strike.
“I think I’ll talk to them later in the day,” he said.
Kaine said he received the same letter that all his colleagues received two days later to notify them of the strike.
“I was just like everyone else in the country, I heard about it on the news. I’m on the Armed Forces and Foreign Relations Committee[s]I don’t think I should learn about it that way, ”he said.
“We’ll probably have some sort of briefing on this with the White House,” he said.