John Kerry: “I wish to begin by thanking the Senator from Illinois, and I thank him for his generous comments. Much more important to…”

“I wish to begin by thanking the Senator from Illinois, and I thank him for his generous comments. Much more important to this effort, I thank him for the serious and entirely appropriate consideration he has given this very important issue. He has been a leader in our caucus on making certain the Constitution, which he read from and cited, has been properly adhered to and lived up to by this body, which is our solemn responsibility. After all, we all take an oath when we are sworn in to promise to uphold it. That is first and foremost. This tension that has existed, as he rightly points out, going back to the Vietnam war, is real. President after President has declared that they simply believe the law is unconstitutional, and they don't follow it. President Obama, to his credit, has not asserted that. He has, in fact, written a letter to the Congress in which he said he would not assert that but, rather, he asked us for the appropriate authorization. He did that, I might add, before the 60 days that expired. So it is up to us to be responsible and to do our duty. I thank Senator Durbin for the careful way in which he has taken the past slippages or problems, whether inadvertent or advertent, that have followed the War Powers Act through its history, and we have either seen the law not applied or simply ignored. He has been diligent in insisting we have a responsibility we need to live up to.…”