Barbara Lee: “I thank our chairman of the Rules Committee, Mr. McGovern, and I thank the chair of the Armed Services Committee…”

“I thank our chairman of the Rules Committee, Mr. McGovern, and I thank the chair of the Armed Services Committee, Chairman Smith, for working with me and all of our members on this amendment and for making this amendment in order. Madam Chair, I am pleased to offer this amendment along with Representatives Adam Schiff, Eliot Engel, Jason Crow, John Lewis, Seth Moulton, Max Rose, and many, many others. Madam Chair, this amendment is straightforward; it is timely; and it should be noncontroversial. It would immediately repeal the 2002 Authorization for the Use of Military Force against Iraq. Repeal of the 2002 AUMF would not impact any existing military operations because it no longer serves an operational purpose. Leaving the 2002 AUMF on the books runs the risk that it could be utilized by the executive branch for military operations that Congress never intended to authorize. When Congress passed the 2002 AUMF prior to the invasion of Iraq, it was intended to address the perceived threat posed by the regime of Saddam Hussein as it related to the presence of weapons of mass destruction. United States military deployments and operations carried out pursuant to the 2002 AUMF, Operation Iraqi Freedom, officially concluded in 2011. Seventeen years after the resolution's passage, the United States recognizes the sovereignty of Iraq and considers the Iraqi Government a key ally.…”