WASHINGTON _ "When I voted in 2001 to authorize military force against the perpetrators of the September 11th attacks, I had no idea I would be authorizing armed conflict for more than fifteen years, and counting."
That's what Sen. Jeff Flake said Thursday. The Arizona Republican was announcing yet another effort with Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., to get Congress to actually go on record to authorize the use of military force against ISIS and other terror groups.
"It is past time for Congress to voice its support for the war against ISIS, something many military officers and diplomats working to defeat ISIS have advocated for, and for Congress to reassert some of the authority it has abdicated over the years," Flake said in a statement.
Kaine, the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2016, has been working with Flake on authorizations for several years. He had said President Barack Obama needed congressional approval to combat ISIS.
Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker said Thursday that, "It would be my hope ... that we would also during this next work period begin to take up the AUMF."
The Republican from Tennessee praised the effort by Flake and Kaine.
"It's the best of the U.S. Senate working in a bipartisan way to come up with something that may in fact work," Corker said, speaking at a committee markup Thursday morning.
Like Obama, President Donald Trump is continuing to pursue the fight against terrorist entities using authorities granted in 2001 and 2002 to take military action against al-Qaida, as well as for the military action against Iraq.
In April, senators emerged from a closed briefing regarding military action against Syria wanting the Trump administration to provide a proposal for any additional use of force authorization. But even then lawmakers conceded there is no good legal remedy for Congress to assert its will.
"We have the War Powers Act," Foreign Relations ranking Democrat Benjamin L. Cardin of Maryland said at the time. "There's no way of enforcing the War Powers Act, but we do have the War Powers Act."
The legislation Flake and Kaine are introducing Thursday would, according to a summary provided to CQ Roll Call, "repeal and replace" the AUMFs from the George W. Bush administration. The new authorization would cover ISIS, al-Qaida and the Taliban.
It would set up a new process to allow Congress to weigh in more expeditiously when the fight against ISIS, al-Qaida and the Taliban expands beyond an identified set of countries (Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya and Somalia).
The bill also would allow for better oversight of what exactly constitutes being an affiliate or an associate of one of the three groups.
"Most members of Congress were not yet elected when the debate and vote on the 2001 AUMF took place and it is time for this Congress to fulfill its duty by putting its stamp on the current fight and to reaffirm its commitment to defeating ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and the Taliban," Kaine said in a statement. "I'm proud to have Senator Flake as a partner on this issue as we share this AUMF with our colleagues in hopes it presents a bipartisan way forward on this issue."
(Rachel Oswald contributed to this report.)
