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Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I rise today to speak in strong opposition to what the Democrats are putting forward on this floor of the U.S. Senate today. It is a War Powers Resolution.

Let me expose this resolution for what it is. The Democrat resolution undercuts Americans' peace through strength.

I just heard the minority leader come to the floor, and he said that no one ``has the guts to stand up to him'' and say he is wrong. I think he was talking about President Trump.

Well, let me tell you, the Republicans are going to stand up to Chuck Schumer and to Tim Kaine, who has brought this resolution today on the floor of the U.S. Senate, and say to them: You are wrong. You are wrong.

The purpose of the War Powers Act of 1973 is to ensure consultation and reporting. It is never intended to allow Congress to micromanage military operations. Under the statute, a President must notify Congress within 48 hours. President Trump did that. Members of this body were further briefed yesterday by top officials from the administration. The law then provides a 60-day window for continued military action.

Now, many people believe the War Powers Act is actually unconstitutional. The Constitution makes the President the Commander in Chief. Every modern President has exercised this authority. President Clinton did it in the Balkans. President Obama did it in Libya. President Biden did it in Syria and the Gaza Strip.

So why do Democrats object today? Why? It is because Donald Trump is President of the United States. That is why they are doing this. Democrats would rather obstruct President Trump than obliterate Iran's national nuclear program. Let that sink in. That is what the Democrats are trying to do. They want to use the War Powers Act as a partisan battering ram.

This is Senator Kaine's fifth War Powers Resolution since President Trump returned to office a little more than a year ago. These resolutions have been used only 11 times in 50 years since the law was passed. The Senator from Virginia alone accounts for nearly half of them. Yet Senator Kaine introduced no War Powers Resolutions--zero-- when Barack Obama and Joe Biden were President.

And it isn't just the War Powers Resolution. As Democrats jeopardize Americans' peace through strength abroad, they are obstructing American security here at home.

A few minutes ago on this floor, Senator Schumer, the minority leader, came to the floor, and he said that what was happening in Iran is--he said, ``military insanity.'' Those were his words.

Let me tell you what insanity is. Insanity is not allowing the Department of Homeland Security to be funded--because the Democrats are blocking that funding today. They have done it earlier this week. They have been doing it now for several weeks, at a time when our Nation is on red alert for terrorism. And they are coming to the Senate floor today to try to tie President Trump's hands in a situation in Iran that is making America safer and making the world safer, and the Democrats are undermining our security at home.

It was 9/11 years ago--the planes into the Twin Towers, into the Pentagon, into the field in Pennsylvania--9/11. That is why we established the Department of Homeland Security: to fight terrorism.

And there is no end in sight to what the Democrats want to do, continuing to keep the Department of Homeland Security shut down. The shutdown by the Democrats is endangering every single American. The next cyber attack on the homeland, that is on the Democrats. The next shooting by a lone wolf terrorist like we saw in Texas, that is on the Democrats. Blood will be on their hands. The next criminal that crosses the border illegally and kills an innocent American, that is on the Democrats, who have shut down the Department of Homeland Security.

The American people deserve better. The American people deserve safety and are not getting it from the Democrats, as they continue to shut down the Department of Homeland Security. The Department of Homeland Security must be fully funded, and the people working there must get paid.

Make no mistake, what President Trump is doing today in Iran is right and it is necessary. For 47 years, Iran has attacked our country and our people. From Beirut to Baghdad, Iran and their terrorist proxies have American blood on their hands. Every President--every President-- has pledged Iran would never have a nuclear weapon. Only President Trump had the courage to keep the pledge.

President Trump worked for more than a year on a diplomatic off-ramp. He offered Iran every opportunity to choose peace. Iran refused every offer. The Iranian regime was racing to build a nuclear weapon. It was building and stockpiling deadly missiles at the rate of 100 missiles a month. As the Defense Intelligence Agency reported, Iran had the ``largest and most diverse'' missile arsenal in the Middle East. Only when it became clear that Iran was preparing to attack our troops and our allies did President Trump strike first.

Operation Epic Fury is a defensive action against a clear, present, and accelerating danger. Our forces are engaged in targeted strikes against Iran's military assets. The mission is to destroy Iran's capacity to wage war, and our troops are succeeding.

This case for the mission is clearly and publicly stated. President Trump communicated our objectives within hours of the first strike: Destroy Iran's missile industry, and that includes their missiles, their launchers, and the production capacity, missiles they were stockpiling. Destroy Iran's navy. Destroy Iran's terrorist proxy network. Stop Iran from ever getting a nuclear weapon.

That is exactly what our brave men and women in uniform have done. In less than 1 week and with 100 hours into this, Iran's Supreme Leader has been killed, its missile and drone industry destroyed, its navy sunk, the tentacles of Iran's terror network severed, and its capacity to ever produce nuclear weapons eliminated. This is American peace through strength.

President Trump absolutely acted within his article II, section 2 constitutional powers to achieve these goals. When Democrats come to the floor and they claim that President Trump lacks the constitutional authority to carry out this mission, they are wrong. When they claim President Trump has not clearly laid out our objectives to the American people, they are wrong.

Our targeted strikes also send a powerful message--and it is a message of deterrence--to our adversaries. Russia and China are seeing that American resolve is real.

There is also a profound opportunity here for the Iranian people. Operation Epic Fury is a defensive action for America, and it can lead to freedom for the Iranian people. The Iranian people have been prisoners of this oppressive regime, and they have been that way for decades. With the regime degraded, the Iranian people now have the opportunity to chart their own future. America is fighting the Iranian regime, not the Iranian people. The Iranian people aspire to freedom, and they have America's support.

Mr. President, let me return to the Kaine resolution on which we are going to be voting today. It is wrong to vote to signal weakness to our enemies. It is wrong to vote to undermine our troops in combat. It is wrong to vote to undercut peace through strength. I will vote to uphold the safety and the security of this Nation.

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Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cornyn).

The result was announced--yeas 90, nays 8, as follows: [Rollcall Vote No. 45 Leg.] YEAS--90 Alsobrooks Baldwin Banks Barrasso Bennet Blackburn Blumenthal Blunt Rochester Boozman Britt Budd Cantwell Capito Cassidy Collins Coons Cortez Masto Cotton Cramer Crapo Cruz Curtis Daines Duckworth Durbin Ernst Fetterman Fischer Gallego Gillibrand Graham Grassley Hagerty Hassan Hawley Heinrich Hickenlooper Hirono Hoeven Husted Hyde-Smith Justice Kaine Kelly Kennedy Kim King Klobuchar Lankford Lujan Lummis Markey Marshall McConnell McCormick Merkley Moody Moran Moreno Mullin Murkowski Murray Ossoff Padilla Peters Reed Ricketts Risch Rosen Rounds Sanders Schatz Schiff Schmitt Schumer Scott (SC) Shaheen Sheehy Slotkin Smith Sullivan Thune Warner Warnock Warren Welch Whitehouse Wicker Wyden Young NAYS--8 Johnson Lee Murphy Paul Scott (FL) Tillis Tuberville Van Hollen ANSWERED ``PRESENT'' --1 Booker NOT VOTING--1 Cornyn

The motion was agreed to.

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