[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 196 (Wednesday, December 12, 2018)]
[House]
[Page H10112]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            CONGRESS CONTINUES TO EXCEED LOWEST EXPECTATIONS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Kentucky (Mr. Massie) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MASSIE. Mr. Speaker, last night, the Rules Committee came out 
with a procedural resolution for the farm bill that violates both the 
Constitution and the War Powers Act of 1973. Just when you thought 
Congress couldn't get any swampier, we continue to exceed even the 
lowest expectations.
  Section 2 of House Resolution 1176, the rule for the farm bill, says 
that the provisions of section 7 of the War Powers Resolution shall not 
apply during the remainder of the 115th Congress to any concurrent 
resolution introduced pursuant to the War Powers Resolution.
  What this means is that our leadership has decided that the House 
just doesn't need to vote on whether U.S. soldiers, personnel, weapons, 
and taxpayer dollars should go toward assisting Saudi Arabia with its 
brutal war on civilians in Yemen, a war that has caused the world's 
worst famine in over 100 years.
  This isn't the first time that our leadership, using the Rules 
Committee, has swept under the rug the War Powers Act. They did it last 
month. What they did is they hid the vote inside of another resolution, 
a procedural resolution for a bill called Manage our Wolves Act. So, 
many Members of Congress swept under the rug the War Powers Act without 
even knowing it, because it was in a procedural resolution.
  But think about what they are doing this time. Instead of specifying 
a certain resolution that they are going to suspend the War Powers Act 
for, they are saying any resolution for all of Congress.
  In my opinion, this violates both the U.S. Constitution and statutory 
law. But, apparently, this doesn't matter to our leadership and the 
majority of the Rules Committee.
  Just as a remainder, Article I, Section 8 of the United States 
Constitution says that Congress and Congress alone, not the executive 
branch, possesses the power to declare war. Although the Constitution's 
language unequivocally gives this power solely to Congress, Presidents, 
nevertheless, continued to launch military action abroad prior to 
receiving Congressional approval. This is why Congress passed the War 
Powers Act of 1973.
  Section 5(c) of the War Powers Act requires the President to remove 
United States forces at any time, if Congress so directs by concurrent 
resolution, and Section 7 establishes priority procedures for 
consideration of such a removal resolution. It requires the Committee 
on Foreign Affairs to report out that resolution within 15 days. You 
can't let this thing die in committee. It has to come back to the floor 
within 15 days, according to the law since 1973.
  Then it directs that the House must vote on the resolution within 3 
calendar days. It can't die on the floor. There has to be a vote within 
3 days.
  But, instead of following the law, instead of following the 
Constitution, the Rules Committee last night snuck language into the 
rule for the farm bill, and this should upset farmers who are depending 
on the farm bill. They snuck into the rule for the farm bill a 
resolution that deprives the entire House of Representatives of its 
constitutional right to decide when and where our soldiers should be 
sent into harm's way.
  So let me sum this up. Even if you think we should be involved in 
Yemen, even if you think soldiers should go there, even if you think we 
should give the bombs to Saudi Arabia to drop on civilians, you 
shouldn't want to sneak that into an unrelated bill. You shouldn't want 
to hide that in a farm bill. What good could you be up to by hiding 
that in another bill?
  But let's say you are okay with hiding it in another bill because you 
don't want your constituents to find out where you stand on this issue: 
I had to vote for the farm bill. Sorry.
  Well, even if you are okay with hiding it in another bill, this is 
the wrong way to do it. Last time, when they snuck it--when they swept 
it under the rug last month, they specified that the resolution 
wouldn't have the powers of the War Powers Act, wouldn't have the 
privileges of the War Powers Act.
  This time, not only are they sweeping it under the rug, they are 
preemptively sweeping all of the power of Congress under the War Powers 
Act under the rug for the entire remainder of this congressional 
session. It sets a horrible precedent. It is a dangerous precedent.
  The Speaker is grabbing more powers using the Speaker's committee, 
the Rules Committee. He is doing so and jeopardizing the power of the 
House of Representatives, because for him to grab more power requires 
us to give more power to the executive branch, to abdicate our 
constitutional responsibility to decide when and where our military 
should go.
  So I urge my colleagues to oppose this illegal and unconstitutional 
action today by voting ``no'' on the rule for the farm bill. That is 
House Resolution 1176

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