Fire Grants and Safety Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. REED. Madam President, I rise today to express my support for S. 316 and the repealing of the 1991 and 2002 authorization for the use of military force, or AUMF. I commend Senators Kaine and Young for their relentless work on this bill, and I am glad to be a cosponsor of it along with 43 of my colleagues.

I voted against the 2002 AUMF when it was introduced more than 20 years ago. And I can assure you that as we debated that bill at that time, no one would have believed that 20 years later we would be on the floor debating its repeal. The war against Saddam Hussein is long over, and our bilateral relationship with Iraq is fundamentally different today. In our current fight against violent extremists, the Biden administration has clearly stated it does not rely on the 2002 AUMF as the basis for any ongoing military operations.

Let's remember what the 2002 AUMF authorizes. The United States went to war, ``to defend the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq.'' The Bush administration alleged, falsely, that Iraq had amassed an arsenal of nuclear weapons. Bush administration officials also alleged that the Iraq Government had ties to the al-Qaida terrorists that attacked the United States on September 11, 2001. These false pretenses and cherry-picked information provided the basis for Congress to authorize the war in Iraq in 2002--again, an authorization I opposed.

And this costly war of choice caused the United States irreparable harm. It caused us to take our eyes off violent extremist groups throughout the region and resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan. It also forced us to take our eyes off Russia and China as they became peer competitors. As we spent billions of dollars investing in tactical vehicles to protect our troops in a counterinsurgency, as we spent billions of dollars to try to train Afghan forces, the Russians and the Chinese invested in hypersonic vehicles, in very sophisticated long- range precision strike weapons. And the Chinese have been building an entire navy since then. We paid little attention because we were preoccupied with Iraq.

And finally and ironically, our war in Iraq allowed Iran to become one of the most powerful and dangerous forces in the region, because we took out a block against their ambition, which had been Saddam Hussein and Iraq. As a result, we are paying, today, for those errors in judgment, and I think it is only fitting that we recognize it and repeal those AUMFs.

We have ongoing operations to suppress violent extremists. Beginning on 9/11 and going forward, we have been fighting anyone who has aspirations to use terror attacks against the U.S. homeland or our allies. That is as a result of the 2001 AUMF that essentially empowered our government to find and defeat terrorists, anywhere they are, who pose a threat to the United States and to our allies. Retaining the 2001 AUMF or an appropriate successor to that statute remains essential for the Defense Department's current counterterrorism operations, and Congress must continue to exercise robust oversight over its use.

Further, the Biden administration has drawn a clear distinction between the two Iraq AUMFs that would be repealed under S. 316 and the 2001 AUMF. The repeal of the two AUMFs would have no impact on our current operations, and as a domestic legal basis, no ongoing military activities rely solely on either the 1991 or the 2002 AUMF.

Leaving the 2002 authorization in place sends a harmful signal to Iraq, where our forces remain at the invitation of the Government of Iraq. Iraq is a critical partner now in our fight against ISIS and in our fight against Shia militias that are transiting Iraq and attacking our forces in Syria. We should not communicate to the Iraqi Government that the United States reserves the right to use force against its nation in the future. This is contrary to the cooperation that our military forces need to counter ISIS operations.

Further, keeping the 2002 AUMF provides a propaganda tool for Iran. The Iranian Government is constantly seeking to convince the Iraqis that Tehran, not Washington, is a more reliable partner. We face a real and growing threat from Iran, but the 2002 AUMF does not authorize the use of force against Iran, and it must not be relied on for that purpose now.

Finally, as laid out in the Constitution, Congress has the sole power to declare war. We must exercise that responsibility with the utmost care when it comes to matters of the use of military force. Repealing AUMFs that have served their intended purposes and are no longer applicable to current military operations is fully consistent with the careful exercise of the Senate's constitutional responsibilities.

On that basis, I support S. 316 and the repeal of the 2002 and 1991 AUMFs. Again, I commend Senator Kaine for his leadership, and I urge my colleagues to vote yes on this bill.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source