Homeland chairman: Congress should pass broad war authorization
Congress should send President Obama a new, broad war authorization that declares war on the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee said Monday.
"I think that is our constitutional responsibility. I think Congress should declare war against ISIS," Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said on CNN's "New Day."
Instead of passing a narrow authorization for the use of military force (AUMF), McCaul said Congress should give the White House the ability to use whatever tools it needs to defeat the terrorist group.
"I think it should be an AUMF that basically states that we will defeat ISIS wherever they exist. It should be a very broad authorized use of military force, and I think that's what the country wants. I think that's what the world wants," he said.
If a broad war authorization came to the House floor, McCaul said, "I think you'd see the majority of members of Congress vote for that."
The top Republican on the Homeland Security Committee also warned that if the U.S. doesn't deal with ISIS at its core in Iraq and Syria, the problem is "going to come here."
President Obama has said the 2001 authorization Congress passed after the 9/11 attacks covers current military operations against ISIS. Still, the White House sent Congress a new war authorization proposal in February.
But because lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have been deeply divided over how to address ISIS overseas, efforts to pass a new war authorization have either stalled or failed. Many Democrats, for example, are wary about a broad authorization because they don't want a repeat of the Iraq war.
Many Democrats and Republicans rejected the White House proposal because it wouldn't have given Congress enough oversight power.
A small bipartisan group of lawmakers in the House earlier this month sent a letter to Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, asking him to revive the process for a new war authorization. In response, a spokeswoman for Ryan told CBS News that members first needed to be briefed on the administration's decision to send less than 50 special operations forces into Syria.
At the Democratic debate in Iowa on Saturday night, Hillary Clinton said she also agreed the current AUMF covers current operations, but said she would like to see it updated.