Richard B. Nugent: “I would like to thank my friend and Rules Committee member, Mr. Scott, for the opportunity to speak in support of this…”

“I would like to thank my friend and Rules Committee member, Mr. Scott, for the opportunity to speak in support of this rule. Mr. Speaker, we are already fighting a war on two fronts--Iraq and Afghanistan. Our troops and resources are already spread very thin. On March 19, the President announced that U.S. military forces had joined with our NATO allies to commence operations in Libya. The President did this not only without congressional authorization but without even consulting Congress on the matter. For the first 10 days of this operation, it was under U.S. command before shifting control of all ongoing operations to NATO on March 30. To this day, the President still hasn't come to Congress to ask for formal approval. When the President first committed our military to operations in Libya, he said we were talking about days, not months. Today, we are talking about months, not days. Mr. Speaker, President Obama has put us in a trick bag with our NATO allies. He knew he was committing our military forces and assets to a mission that would be unpopular, unjustifiable and unconstitutional. So, in an attempt to avoid Congress and Article I of the U.S. Constitution, President Obama transferred operations over to NATO. Although we may not be in control of the mission, there is no doubt that NATO could not move forward without U.S. assets. As my colleague from Ohio (Mr.…”