Senators Jeff Flake, a Republican from Arizona, and Tim Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia, are trying to restart legislation for the conflict almost a year after the US first targeted the radical Islamist group outside of Erbil last August.
Kaine, who has made repeated demands for legislative oversight of the war last year, said in a statement that it was “inexcusable that Congress has let 10 months of war go by without authorizing the US mission against ISIL.”
“Our military has been waging war against ISIL since last September, and Congress has been appropriating funds to pay for those operations,” Flake added in a related statement. “It’s past time for Congress to formally voice its support of the mission itself.”
President Barack Obama put forward draft legislation for the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) in February, but it fell prey to partisan bickering and stalled in Congress, leaving the conflict in legal limbo.
The stillborn White House plan would have banned “enduring offensive ground operations” and cancelled the 2002 AUMF still in place for the 2003 Iraq war that toppled former dictator Saddam Hussein. Democrats feared the bill was ambiguous enough to grant expansive war powers, while Republicans interpreted it as overly restrictive.
While the Kaine-Flake amendment would leave a 2001 AUMF in place authorizing the fight against ISIS, it would also introduce a so-called “sunset clause” that would terminate legal authorization after three years.
The Foreign Relations Committee will review State Department authorization on Tuesday afternoon, considering the proposed Kaine-Flake amendments making the AUMF explicit. Committee Chairman Bob Corker praised the bipartisan effort, but neither his office nor the White House confirmed official support.
While the senators acknowledge significant differences remain between the two parties, and many believe the White House does not need authorization for its military involvement, they hope the measure is a “starting point” for official congressional support of the war effort.
While the revised AUMF states that “ISIL has threatened genocide and committed vicious acts of violence against religious and ethnic minority groups, including Iraqi Christian, Yezidi, and Turkmen populations,” it does not mention actions targeting Iraq’s Kurdish population.
