[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 3027]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         WAR POWERS RESOLUTION

  (Mr. QUIGLEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. QUIGLEY. Mr. Speaker, the Constitution makes clear: Only Congress 
can declare war. While no one can dispute that we are at war, Congress 
has never been asked to make this declaration.
  I disagree with the Congressman from Ohio's policy position; to leave 
Afghanistan at this moment would undermine our national security and 
imperil our troops. However, the War Powers Resolution is an important 
check on unfettered executive authority.
  It is worth remembering the period in our Nation's history during 
which this act of Congress was passed. In 1973, during the height of 
the Vietnam War and following the Gulf of Tonkin, Congress overrode a 
Presidential veto to pass this measure into law. It did so because it 
was concerned with the erosion of congressional authority to decide 
when the United States should become involved in a war. While Vietnam 
was a very different war, the frustration felt by the American public 
and Members of Congress at that point in time is similar to that of 
today.
  In overriding a presidential veto and passing the War Powers 
Resolution, Congress was reclaiming a critical responsibility the 
Founding Fathers had granted to it: that such a declaration would be a 
product of robust discourse, one in which our leaders would identify 
the nature of the threat posed by our enemy, define the objective of 
the mission before us, and fully weigh the prudence of sending our 
troops into harm's way.

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