Political Quotes

“along with Senator Murphy and Senator Lee, I rise to talk about one of the most important jobs the U.S. Congress has, and that is to fulfill its constitutional responsibility about whether the United States of America engages in military action. We can disagree about the merits of this or that military action, but there should be absolutely no confusion that sending men and women of the U.S. military into conflict is the responsibility not of the President of the United States alone but of the U.S. Congress. Let us be very clear--and I say this especially to my conservative friends who talk about the Constitution all the time. Let me remind them as to what article I, section 8 of the Constitution reads in no uncertain terms: ``The Congress shall have Power . . . to declare War.'' The Founding Fathers gave the power to declare war to Congress-- the branch most accountable to the people. For far too long, Congress, under both Democratic and Republican administrations, has, in my view, abdicated its constitutional role in authorizing war. We are moving down a very slippery slope by which Congress is now becoming increasingly irrelevant in terms of that vitally important issue. In my view, the time is long overdue for Congress to reassert its constitutional authority. That is what Senator Lee, Senator Murphy, and I are doing with S.J. Res. 54.…”