[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 109 (Thursday, June 27, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4608-S4609]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                S. 1790

  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, tomorrow this body faces an 
opportunity, in fact, an obligation to reassert its proper 
constitutional role in warmaking.
  I urge my colleagues to support the Udall-Kaine amendment, a 
provision to prohibit funding for unauthorized and unapproved military 
operations against Iran. No vote will be more important during this 
session than the one we cast tomorrow. It is not only the imminence of 
potential conflict, it is the reality that we would be surrendering our 
proper constitutional responsibility and our right if we fail to adopt 
this amendment. The American people already believe we have ceded too 
much authority to the executive branch; that we are implicitly, if not 
directly and explicitly, approving an imperial presence. This amendment 
puts us to the test before the American people.
  The Congress has a job to do. We should do that job tomorrow. We 
should insist that we have the authority and we have the obligation to 
consider whether there are military operations against Iran.
  We can talk about policy. There is no question that Iran is a malign 
and treacherously bad actor in that part of the world. There is no 
doubt that it poses a clear and present jeopardy to the world 
community. Iran may well have installed mines on the two tankers that 
were severely damaged recently and may well be the culprit in shooting 
down an American drone in the past week, but the United States is on a 
perilous course. We are on a dangerous course toward continued 
escalation and possible miscalculation that may create a spiral of 
uncontrollable military responses.
  It isn't that we have a dangerous policy, it is that we have no 
policy, no strategy, no endgame articulated by the President of the 
United States or anyone in this administration. To resort to military 
action rather than reliance on diplomatic approaches is a recipe for 
potential disaster.
  This unintended escalation could result from more miscalculation or 
it could result from purposeful desire on one side or both sides among 
a small number of advisers or military leaders that there be a resort 
to kinetic activity, but we have, in the meantime, an opportunity to 
resort to diplomacy, to enlist our allies and partners. This situation 
is the result of our putting those allies, in part, in an 
extraordinarily difficult position.
  The current tensions with Iran today are the direct result of 
President

[[Page S4609]]

Trump's ill-conceived policy toward Iran ever since he carelessly and 
recklessly discarded the Iran nuclear deal last year. His approach to 
foreign policy has been indecisive and chaotic, and that is partly the 
reason why tensions have escalated with an adversary rather than 
preserving key nuclear agreements and engaging in diplomacy.
  We must now deescalate and resort to diplomacy. Even if one disagrees 
with that point, puts aside the President's bellicose and bullying 
rhetoric, and even if there is the thought that Iran is solely and 
completely responsible for this situation, the United States should not 
engage in military operations without the authorization of 
Congress. Yes, it may defend against or deter an immediate attack that 
is so urgent that defense of the country has to be undertaken by the 
Commander in Chief. But this Senate should prevent the President from 
entering and starting and engaging in another war in the Middle East 
under the misguided idea that there is a 2001 authorization that allows 
him to do so legally.

  Let me be perfectly clear. A failure of the prohibition funding 
amendment we will consider tomorrow is not itself an authorization for 
the President to wage war with Iran. The Constitution trumps any 
statute. The Constitution requires action by Congress. Without 
congressional authorization and anything short of specific authority 
for declaration of war from Congress, starting or waging a war with 
Iran would be unconstitutional.
  But the NDAA on the floor this week is an opportune time--in fact, a 
perfect opportunity--for Congress to reassert its constitutional 
authority over the role of the declaration of war. We must seize this 
moment. We can't simply allow or rely on the outdated 2001 
authorization for the use of military force. We cannot allow its intent 
to be so distorted and stretched and our constitutionally required 
oversight to be disregarded. We have an obligation to conduct oversight 
continually and push back on an administration that makes false claims 
to advance its warmongering agenda.
  The NDAA we passed today gives us the authority to undertake our 
defense of the Nation.

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