Chris Van Hollen: “This legislation, the defense authorization bill, is now 1,648 pages, and we are being told on the floor of the House…”

“This legislation, the defense authorization bill, is now 1,648 pages, and we are being told on the floor of the House that we either vote for the whole thing or nothing because we are not given a chance for any amendments in between. There are some hugely consequential decisions being made for our national defense in this bill on issues of war and peace. It was just last September the President increased the number of American troops in Iraq to help train and equip the Iraqi and Kurdish forces there. Mr. McGovern, Mr. Jones, and I have a bipartisan amendment saying that U.S. ground forces in Iraq should not be engaged in combat operations going forward. The President has asserted authority under the AUMF. That is a blank check. We don't think there should be a blank check for the executive. This body should vote to make it clear that U.S. forces can't be involved in another ground war in Iraq. There is also a bipartisan amendment offered by Mr. Dent from Pennsylvania, myself, and others that says we should vote on the question of whether we should now arm the so-called moderate Syrian rebels for 2 years at a price of $500 million or up. Now, whether you are for or against it, we should have a vote. Mr. Speaker, I happen to think it is a bad idea. We are not going to be able to successfully micromanage the Syrian civil war. The target of those forces is not ISIS. So in the process, we are actually going to be inadvertently strengthening ISIS.…”