On the recordJune 24, 2011
I thank the gentleman for yielding. I rarely speak on the House floor, and almost never have I ever come to the floor two times in one day to speak on this one issue. But this is my fourth trip to the floor today on this issue because I consider it so important and so serious. If I could rename this bill, I would call it ``a bill to authorize the use of force in Libya.'' That is what we're doing. We should not kid ourselves--we are authorizing the use of force. We are endorsing the Obama war in Libya. Some see this as weakening our presence over there, but there is no doubt, if you read it carefully, we are expanding and giving authority because of the exceptions. The exceptions include search and re-search, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, refueling, planning-- contract labor probably can still go in, the CIA is in there already, special forces. And paying for it: How can you do all that without paying for it? So we are there. This will be the first time the President will have received any information from the Congress that it's okay to pursue what we're doing. We're supposed to be sending the message that we're in charge of when we go to war and when we pay for this war. We're not just supposed to lie over and capitulate to what the President wants--as we have been for too many years.…
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