Ronald Dellums: “I was one of very few Democrats in this Chamber, very few Members, who opposed the War Powers Act on the grounds that it…”

“I was one of very few Democrats in this Chamber, very few Members, who opposed the War Powers Act on the grounds that it watered down and diluted a very powerful and clear statement in the Constitution that Congress should have the right to declare war. What we are looking at here is a question of congressional prerogatives on the one hand and executive prerogatives on the others. These are substantive issues that we need to debate. With all due respect to the chairman of the Committee on Rules, I dissent from him on one significant point. What is the reason why we have a committee process and a subcommittee process? That is because at the subcommittee we hold the appropriate hearings, we do all of the substantive detail, we do bring in experts so that we make informed judgments. Each time a committee brings a bill to this floor, the 435 Members of Congress should feel certain that that committee did its job substantively. What I am saying to the gentleman, that was not done in this instance.”