Tom Udall: “I rise to discuss Congress's ongoing failure to assert our constitutional war powers. This failure is the root cause of…”

“I rise to discuss Congress's ongoing failure to assert our constitutional war powers. This failure is the root cause of two pressing concerns that we currently face: first, the seemingly endless U.S. involvement in Middle East wars; and, second, the very real possibility that the Trump administration will involve us in more of them. The Founders were clear in their intent. The Constitution squarely places the authority to ``declare war''--that is the phrase in the Constitution--and places it clearly with Congress and Congress alone. The Founders did this for good reason. For centuries, European monarchs had drained royal coffers, levied heavy taxes, and lost countless lives in wars that benefited themselves and not the people. As Elbridge Gerry from Massachusetts said during the Constitutional Convention, after another delegate suggested giving this war power to the President: ``[I] never expected to hear in a republic a motion to empower the Executive alone to declare war.'' The Founders vested this most consequential power in the legislative branch so that any decision to go to war would have broad public support. Since the Republic's beginning, there has been a tension between the Congress and the executive branch regarding the use of this power. In the modern era, the balance has been upended. Our ability and willingness to effectively check the Executive on war powers is dangerously diminished.…”