Barbara Lee: “Committing the United States to yet another long-term war in the Middle East, it should never be an afterthought. What…”

“Committing the United States to yet another long-term war in the Middle East, it should never be an afterthought. What we continue to do is authorize, in a variety of bills, the continuation of a war that has not been authorized nor declared. I know that the American people worry about the world and what is taking place. They know how dangerous the world is. We know that also, and we know that the Pentagon deserves a budget and authorizations that ensure our national security, but we also know that we have a constitutional responsibility to debate the use of force, and in fact, if we believe that that is the course of action that our country should take, then let's have an up-or-down vote. This really should be the moment that we are debating that because, once we leave here, come January, we don't know what will happen. We don't know how far this war will have expanded, and it will continue to be an unauthorized war. Congress and the American people deserve to understand the costs and consequences to our national security and to our domestic priorities in fighting this war.”