Howard Berman: “I think when we examine this closely, and I say this with tremendous respect for both the sincerity and the principle…”

“I think when we examine this closely, and I say this with tremendous respect for both the sincerity and the principle, not to mention the legal acumen of the sponsor of this resolution, but this is a laughable way to claim we are fulfilling our constitutional obligations, really laughable. This resolution is pursuant to section 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution, as I understand it. 5(c) says, ``notwithstanding subsection (b),'' which is the report triggering action language, ``at any time that the United States armed forces are engaged in hostilities . . . without a declaration of war,'' there is not one here, and I will concede generally and I will concede for this purpose that we are in hostilities in Bosnia, ``without a declaration of war, without specific statutory authorization,'' and we have no specific statutory authorization, I do not consider an appropriation to be a substitute for that, ``such forces shall be removed by the President if the Congress so directs by concurrent resolution.''”