Menendez welcomes ISIS vote in lame duck

Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) said he welcomed President Obama’s call on Wednesday for a new authorization of military force (AUMF) against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS, or ISIL). 

“We will work at once with the President to draft a tailored AUMF, providing the additional authority required to continue operations to defeat, dismantle, and degrade the ISIL threat,” Menendez said. 

{mosads}It was uncertain whether a lame-duck Congress would tackle an AUMF or wait until newly elected lawmakers would enter in January, but the president’s call has placed pressure on Congress to get it done before then, while Democrats control the Senate. 

Both Republicans and Democrats had agreed to postpone a vote on an AUMF until after the Nov. 4 elections.

Menendez said his committee would initiate the process of getting an AUMF approved in the “days ahead” and hold hearings next week on the U.S.’s military engagement against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. 

“This violent terrorist organization threatens U.S. national security, our international allies and partners, and is destabilizing the Middle East,” Menendez said in a statement.

Congress is also slated to revisit approval for the president’s plan to train and equip 5,000 moderate Syrian rebels, which it approved in September in a stopgap government funding measure. However, that program is scheduled to expire along with the spending measure in December.