John Yarmuth: “But, in fact, what you're doing and what the other Members of our body have done when they go to Iraq is to fulfill…”

“But, in fact, what you're doing and what the other Members of our body have done when they go to Iraq is to fulfill their responsibilities under article I. Because article I says that Congress shall have the power to provide for the common defense, it says to raise and support armies, to provide and maintain a Navy, to make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces, and so forth, to provide for organizing, arming and disciplining, this is the militia. But all of these powers and responsibilities are given to the Congress not just to say okay to the President, the Commander in Chief, but to make the decisions as to what the appropriate levels of support for those various responsibilities are. So when we talk about going to Iraq to assess the situation there, to talk to our troops, that is not just to go for a matter of curiosity or journalistic curiosity, it's actually to fulfill our responsibilities because we are responsible to make decisions as to what appropriate levels of support are.”