WASHINGTON _ House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., urged Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., Friday morning to bring House members back from their spring recess to discuss President Donald Trump's use of military force in Syria.
At issue is whether the 2001 authorization for the use of force that Congress approved after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks gives the president permission to take military actions in Syria. It was a question lawmakers weren't able to agree on under President Barack Obama.
The House had already left for its two-week recess when the bombing occurred. The Senate is scheduled to leave Friday afternoon.
"The president's action and any response demands that we immediately do our duty. Congress must live up to its constitutional responsibility to debate an authorization of the use of military force against a sovereign nation," Pelosi said in a letter to Ryan.
It's unlikely that Congress will be called back, and Ryan's office said it hasn't changed the schedule.
The war in Syria will not be resolved with a single night of airstrikes, Pelosi added.
"The American people are owed a comprehensive strategy with clear objectives to keep our brave men and women in uniform safe and avoid collateral damage to innocent civilians in Syria," Pelosi said.
