[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Page 4428]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                  IRAN

  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, before I begin discussing the war in 
Iraq, I wish to say a few words about another issue that is perhaps 
even more important and that is the constitutional issues at the very 
heart of this entire debate.
  Let me be very frank: I am not a great fan of the Bush 
administration. And of the many grave concerns I have about President 
Bush and his actions, at the top of that list is that the President 
seems not to understand what the Constitution of the United States is 
all about. Whether it is the consistent attack on our constitutional 
rights which his administration has pursued for a number of years or 
his ``signing statements'' which attempt to circumvent legislation 
passed by Congress, the President appears to believe he can do whatever 
he wants, whenever he wants to. That, in my view, is not what the 
United States of America is all about, and it is not what our 
Constitution provides for.
  In that regard, I wish to inform my colleagues in the Senate that I 
have submitted a resolution, similar to one introduced by Congressman 
DeFazio in the House, that makes it very clear the President does not 
have the constitutional authority to start a war against Iran without 
the express authority of the Congress. There are many people in my 
State of Vermont--and there are people all over this country--who are 
deeply worried that the President may take us into a war in Iran and 
that he is currently laying the groundwork for that war in exactly the 
same way he led us into the war in Iraq.
  So let me be very clear: If President Bush were to start a war in 
Iran without receiving the authority to do so from Congress, he would 
not only be creating, in my view, an international disaster, he would 
also be creating a major constitutional crisis. I hope very much he 
does not do that.
  President Bush fails to understand the power to declare war under the 
Constitution is given to the Congress, not the President. My 
resolution, S. Con. Res. 13, is very simple. It states clearly that it 
is ``the sense of Congress that the President should not initiate 
military action against Iran without first obtaining authorization from 
Congress.'' I hope my colleagues will give strong support to this 
resolution.

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