The editors of Bloomberg call for the Congress to repeal the two Authorizations to Use Military Force that presently remain in place:
The Constitution gives presidents broad discretion over the use of military force against foreign adversaries, provided Congress grants them statutory authority. The current arrangement, however, extends presidential war powers far beyond any reasonable interpretation of the law. By failing to pass any measure constraining the use of force since 2002, lawmakers have handed the executive a blank check to wage war however it sees fit — with little accountability for the human and financial costs.
Since 2014, congressional Democrats have mounted attempts to roll back the existing war authorizations, but none even reached a floor vote in the Republican-controlled Senate. Last month, the Democratic chairs of the relevant House committees called on the Biden administration to support legislation to repeal the 2002 authorization and join Congress in reviewing its predecessor. The proposed new law would require the executive to disclose the organizations targeted by the military, name the countries concerned, and include a sunset clause allowing Congress to end the authorization after a certain time.
Biden should agree to this, as he suggested he would during his campaign. It would narrow his freedom of action, but there’s an offsetting benefit from his point of view: It would force lawmakers to share responsibility for the outcome of U.S. military engagements.
I agree with this wholeheartedly. They should start enforcing the War Powers Resolution while they’re at it.
Would anyone care to place a small side wager on whether any of those actions will actually take place?
