Senators ask for Syria policy study in defense bill

A bipartisan pair of Senate Armed Services Committee members is calling for the annual defense policy bill to create a panel to study U.S. policy in Syria.

“As the situation in Syria intensifies, members of the Senate Armed Services Committee are committed to holding the administration accountable for a serious, long-term strategy,” Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) wrote in a letter to committee leaders released Thursday.

“Given the stakes for the U.S. and our allies, we believe that if the White House does not provide a strategy by the time the fiscal year 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) comes to the Senate floor, Congress must act.”

Specifically, Shaheen and Sasse want an amendment added to the bill that would create a so-called Syria Study Group, something Shaheen has previously advocated for.

It’s unclear when the NDAA will come to the Senate floor after Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.), who would normally shepherd the bill through the chamber, was diagnosed with brain cancer. On Thursday, McCain tweeted that he would return soon.

In their letter, Shaheen and Sasse argue that while U.S. involvement in Syria has focused mostly on the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), an increasingly complex battlefield is making it more difficult to stick to that narrow focus.

“In fact, in recent weeks, U.S. forces have come into direct, lethal contact with Russia-backed Syrian regime troops and Iranian Hezbollah forces, potentially placing U.S. troops in harm’s way,” they wrote.

Last month, the United States shot down a Syrian fighter jet it said was firing on U.S.-backed forces fighting ISIS.

U.S. forces have also twice shot down Iranian-made drones they said posed a threat to its partnered forces, as well as conducted airstrikes on pro-Syrian-government militias they said were advancing into a so-called deconfliction zone around a training base.

Shaheen and Sasse said the Syria Study Group would help by ensuring U.S. actions are part of a broader strategy, rather than tactical decisions.

“The Syria Study Group would, we believe, allow Congress to support a policy approach that closes the current gap between U.S. goals and concrete U.S. commitments while ensuring that any escalation of U.S. involvement in Syria is not undertaken for tactical gains alone but is part of a strategy to achieve critical U.S. objective,” they wrote.

They indicated McCain and ranking member Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) expressed support for the idea in the closed-door committee markup of the bill, writing that amending the NDAA to include the study group would be “consistent with your pledge during the Senate Armed Services Committee NDAA markup.”

The release of the letter, which was dated July 18, comes a day after senators received a briefing from the administration on its counter-ISIS efforts. 

Senators were divided after the briefing on whether any new information was presented, though there was at least some concern the strategy still doesn’t touch on the larger civil war and the fate of Syrian President Bashar Assad.