House duo: Lawmakers shirking duty on ISIS

A pair of senior House members is making a renewed push for lawmakers to debate and vote on a proposal for the use of military force against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Tom Cole (R-Okla.) wrote in a letter being circulated to their colleagues of their deep concern that eight months into the fight against ISIS, the House has taken no action on a new authorization for use of military force (AUMF) against the group.

{mosads}They noted that while there have been hearings on President Obama’s AUMF request, there has been no markup and there are no signs of a floor vote.

“This dereliction of our constitutional duty causes great injury to the Congress, and threatens our role as a check on the president’s power to make war,” wrote Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, and Cole, who is one of Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) close personal allies.

The pair plan to send the letter to Boehner later this week.

The president submitted his war powers resolution to Capitol Hill months ago, and it was promptly panned by members of both parties. Republicans said that text restricting “enduring offensive ground combat operations” could limit military options. Critics on the left argued the same language could lead to an open-ended U.S. ground presence in the Middle East.

Debate on the AUMF had been dormant for weeks until House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) declared last week that the president’s proposal could not get the majority 218 votes in the House and was essentially dead. 

But others, like House Armed Services chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), maintain it’s important for lawmakers to at least try to come up with an authorization that targets ISIS. 

“Each additional day that passes without Congress taking up an AUMF for our operations against ISIL undermines our authority and role in matters of war and peace,” wrote Schiff and Cole, using the group’s other common acronym.

“If we refuse to debate a resolution on the weightiest question any nation faces — whether to take military action — we cede to the Executive Branch a power that the framers intentionally delegated to Congress,” they added.

The duo urged Boehner to “instruct the appropriate committees to hold a mark-up and to set aside floor time at the earliest possible juncture for the House to debate and vote” on an AUMF’

“This shirking of our duty will have lasting effects, serving to expand the scope of executive power at the expense of the Congress,” they wrote.