Two Congressmen set the stage for political theater later this month, vowing on Friday to force a debate and vote on the ongoing war against the Islamic State (ISIL).
Reps. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) and Walter Jones (R-N.C.) said on CSPAN’s Washington Journal that they will introduce a privileged resolution to mandate the parliamentary moves on the military operations, and accused Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) of leading an effort by Congressional leaders to avoid fulfilling a legislative branch obligation mandated by the Constitution.
The pair said that McGovern will make the procedural motions under the War Powers Resolution sometime after the House reassembles a week from Tuesday, when it finishes its first of two recesses in May.
“Agree or disagree, put it on the floor and let’s have a debate,” Rep. Jones remarked.
“We’re a little bit tired of sending letters,” McGovern said, noting the pair’s correspondence with Boehner. Jones described it as “the only option we have” to force oversight of the ongoing war.
McGovern described the rules governing the motion as only allowing a vote on withdrawing US forces from combat in Iraq and Syria. He said it would, at the very minimum, “send a message to the leadership and to the committee of jurisdiction that you gotta do something.”
“If the majority in Congress say ‘no,’ then it’s no, and if the majority say ‘yes’ then it’s yes,” he said. “But being silent, you know, that’s moral cowardice. It really is.”
McGovern also noted that he, with the support of Jones, introduced a Concurrent Resolution last summer that called on the President to “not deploy or maintain United States Armed Forces in a sustained combat role in Iraq without specific statutory authorization.” The non-binding vote passed 370-40.
The maneuver, to introduce a vote with teeth, is part of a wider push by the pair to reassert Congress’ role in overseeing US military activities—a part that the legislative branch is particularly hesitant to play in the post 9/11-era. Jones and McGovern also announced that they would be launching a Constitutional war study group, in the former’s words, “to try to educate our colleagues to feel more responsible for these men and women who have given their lives.”
McGovern noted, however, that some of his counterparts in both the House and Senate might be attempting to gain a political edge in staying silent, at least in procedural terms, on national security matters.
“It’s too easy for Congress to just kind of stand back and let it all happen because if it goes bad, you can say ‘I told you it was gonna go bad,’ and if it goes good, you can say ‘well, I was with him all the way,’” he noted.
The pair described the situation as unacceptable, either way. McGovern accused Congress of “abrogating its responsibility.” He said he has seen the nuts and bolts of this as a member of the House Rules Committee, a body–he called it “the traffic cop of Congress”–that has consistently agreed to minimize discussion of ongoing foreign wars. Jones exhorted his colleagues to “meet your responsibility or don’t run for Congress.”
Whether fellow lawmakers will see their war study group as a venue where they can discuss doing that, the pair will most likely be holding its first monthly meeting at Rep. Jones’ office sometime later this month. The maverick Republican said they would be inviting Constitutional experts in a bid to kickstart the debate, and said he hoped “anywhere from 20 to 25” lawmakers would regularly attend.
McGovern commented that it was still in the early planning stages and wasn’t prepared to name legislators that had committed to take part, but said the interest was there, with all kinds of lawmakers’ constituents clamoring for oversight. He welcomed Senate participation and noted that Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) has “been vocal on this issue,” routinely calling for debates and votes on the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) against ISIL.
When asked about the group, a spokesperson for Sen. Kaine told The Sentinel that she didn’t believe he’s currently taking part, and wouldn’t able to get a comment by the end of Friday.
Regardless, McGovern said that the newly created organization’s doors would remain open to anyone interested.
“People who are watching, you should call your members of Congress and tell them join our study group,” McGovern told those switched on to CSPAN, “to be part of this bipartisan effort to demand Congress do its job.”
