On the recordMay 15, 2012
I would like to thank Chairwoman Ros- Lehtinen and Ranking Member Berman for bringing this resolution forward. I regret but do not doubt its necessity. The issue raised in this resolution is not whether we are authorizing war--because we clearly are not. The issue is not whether the President would have to come to this Chamber--any President--should he conclude that war is necessary--because he clearly would. The issue in this resolution is not whether we should conduct negotiations but how we should conduct negotiations. And this resolution gives us an emphatic opportunity to say that when we are negotiating with a country that has conceived its nuclear weapons program in secret, that has brandished its nuclear weapons program with the rhetoric of hostility, and for whom the attainment of a nuclear weapon would be fraught with peril for free people everywhere, then in the context of that negotiation, our position must be that we will not support or stand for an Iran with nuclear weapons. This is the issue. I would urge a ``yes'' vote. And, again, I thank the chair and the ranking member for their patriotic and unified leadership on this question.
