Sheila Jackson Lee: “Let me thank the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Smith) for his leadership and for characterizing where we are today as a…”

“Let me thank the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Smith) for his leadership and for characterizing where we are today as a conflicted and, if you will, highly uncertain posture. I'm looking at the vote count, and it looks as if 225 Republicans voted against a time certain to get out of Libya. If you read the bill H.R. 2278--and I am looking at it over and over again--there really is no print as to a time certain. There is a nebulous statement about limiting funds for such things as search and rescue, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, aerial funding, and operational planning. That can go on ad infinitum. We can take the American people's money forever and ever and continue in this effort. I don't like where we are today. Constitutionally, it is true, it is Congress' right to declare war. And the War Powers resolution--which my good friends on the other side of the aisle are now debating on its constitutionality, and of course they've used it in the past--does indicate that it was done in order to track the Constitution and allow congressional consultation. There was a letter sent by the President. There has been a report sent. But there's no doubt that this was not handled right. But in the Iraq war, an unnecessary war, no Arab League States asked us to join with them. There was no defined threat to the United States in the Iraq war, as we've said. We left the Afghanistan war to dillydally in Iraq and lose 4,000 soldiers. So where is the hypocrisy here?…”