Repealing the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002

Floor Speech

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Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding and for his leadership.

Mr. Speaker, I stand in strong support of this resolution, Congresswoman Lee's longtime effort to repeal the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force.

The Constitution is clear: Only Congress has the power to authorize war.

In 2002, this resolution was adopted in order to address the ongoing threat from Saddam Hussein and his regime in Iraq, the threat that it represented to America. Saddam Hussein is gone. A new government has been established in Iraq, and this AUMF is obsolete.

There are threats to the United States, and we have the authority to address those threats when they arise. There are ongoing threats that we ought to be able to debate here on the floor of the House of Representatives and act upon when our security is threatened. But no President of any party should ever be able to reach back two decades when Congress, on a different fact situation, authorized the use of force in order to authorize any use of force that they deemed to be important to them.

Congress has this authority, and we need to assert it. That is what we do today.

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