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Floor Speech

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Mr. BOOKER. Mr. President, I am grateful for the recognition.

I think we should set the scene very clearly. During the last 2 weeks since we voted on the War Powers Resolution, led in a bipartisan manner by Senators Kaine and Paul, the Trump administration's unconstitutional war with Iran has evolved tremendously.

In the span of just 2 weeks, 13 U.S. servicemembers have been killed and at least 200 of our American men and women have been injured. U.S. diplomatic posts and military facilities in the Middle East are under constant attack. The war has expanded, now impacting at least 15 different countries, from the bases of our European allies to our allies in the region.

American citizens are still, 2 weeks in, stranded in the region trying to get home. Civilian casualties are increasing, and here at home, we are seeing the skyrocketing costs of basic goods, the skyrocketing costs of energy, and the skyrocketing costs we are seeing at the pumps at our gas stations.

We now know the Trump administration is spending over a billion dollars a day on this unauthorized war, while Americans are struggling to make ends meet here at home, and this President is throwing millions of people off of their healthcare.

And this administration, amidst all of this, has failed to come before the U.S. Senate and the American people for public hearings to make its case on the biggest military war engagement since the war in Afghanistan.

Now, all of us--all 100--swore an oath to the Constitution of the United States of America. Well, fealty to that oath is clear because the Constitution is clear. Congress has the authority to declare war and authorize the use of military force. But in this case, Congress and the U.S. Senate, in particular, has done nothing.

The Senate has a solemn responsibility to assert itself along the constitutional mandate in matters of war and peace. This is why I urge my colleagues soon to support the motion to discharge S.J. Res. 118. I ask for that because of what is at stake: billions of American taxpayer dollars, hundreds of American lives.

What is at stake is the Constitution of the United States of America. We swore an oath. We have an obligation. This is the moment now. This is not left or right; this is a moral moment and a solemn, sacred patriotic duty to uphold the Constitution, especially when the President of the United States of America is so willfully violating it.

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Mr. BOOKER. Mr. President, I am grateful for the recognition of the Presiding Officer.

I have listened carefully to my colleagues who have come down to oppose this War Powers Resolution that I am bringing up right now. I have listened with an open heart because many of them I have worked with on Middle East issues assiduously to bring about peace in that region.

I share many of the beliefs that were expressed of the danger of Iran and their proxies, of the chaos and the harm and the lives they have taken, the instability in that region. We have worked side by side on bipartisan delegations, bipartisan work--as the Senate should function--to deal with the challenges in the threat matrix that affect the United States as well as our allies.

But here is the issue: We are bringing a War Powers Resolution to the floor to bring this to a vote and to a debate. My colleagues do not want a debate on this issue. Nothing has been scheduled--no floor debates, no hearings, no oversight, no checks and balances.

This resolution seems to almost offend my friend and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; that how dare we bring this to the floor. Well, we have the power to bring such resolutions to the floor because of incredible sensitivity to the idea of war powers.

The idea that the power to go to war--unlike in times of despots and Presidents--in the United States of America, the power to go to war does not lie with one person, the President of the United States.

Now, at first, there were some people trying to deny--on the other side--that this was a war, but tonight they showed it clear. Multiple people talked about us being at war. We, as a nation, are at war, the largest military engagement we have had since the war in Iraq.

And in this war, in barely over 2 weeks, thousands of people have died. In this war, in barely 2 weeks, 200 Americans have been injured. In this war, 13 Americans have paid the ultimate price for a war that we have gone into on the decision made by one man.

And the American people at large are paying costs in the billions of dollars a week. They are seeing prices at the pump--energy, consumer goods--skyrocketing on top of already this President cutting their healthcare, cutting their food programs, cutting their veteran services. We are at war, and Americans are paying the price and our servicemen--too many--have paid the ultimate price.

And what is our constitutional obligation when the Nation is making billions of dollars of expense? What is our constitutional obligation when lives are being lost every single day? What are our obligations when our brave military men and women, carrying out their missions, some of them not coming home?

Well, the Constitution is clear on this. There is no debate even possible. The Constitution says that the war power belongs to Congress. And so I know the noble issues and ambitions of my colleagues that they mentioned--noble ideals like not letting Iran have a nuclear weapon, noble statements that they are making about trying to stop evil--those are important. That is a debate we should be having, but we are not having it.

It seems that my Republican colleagues, all they want to do is to try to pretend that this is business as usual, to try to ignore or even cover up all that is going on because as my colleague who just spoke on the floor said to a bunch of us today: I do not want open hearings. I do not want executive people of the administration, like the Secretary of State or the Secretary of Defense, to have to answer questions in open hearings.

They want to circumvent the Constitution. They want to go around public oversight. They want to avoid the glare, the questions of the American people.

Woe to a nation--our Founding Fathers believed--woe to a nation that makes it so easy to go to war. They developed this government with a check and a balance. They developed this government oversight. They developed this government with the dispersal of powers so that we could have an enduring democratic Republic.

But what the Republicans are saying is they want none of that--none of our constitutional obligations, no checks and balances, no oversight, no hearings, no accountability. We want to rush to war, spending billions of taxpayer dollars, costing American lives and costing our constitutional fidelity.

It has been 2 weeks since we had a War Powers Resolution brought up by my colleague Tim Kaine. In 2 weeks, this war has expanded. In 2 weeks, more Americans have died. In 2 weeks, more countries have been attacked.

This is not just Iran being hit. It is now 11 countries have been attacked, and even some of our European allies have had their bases in the region attacked.

It has been 2 weeks, and we have seen the mistakes of war, like a school of girls being targeted and attacked, and the administration not feeling that they have to stand before Congress and be accountable for that; 2 weeks, and we have seen more soldiers perish; 2 weeks, and we now have a report that it is over 200 that have visible injuries and perhaps even more invisible injuries.

Today, in the Capitol, we had veterans come, veterans of foreign wars, veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq, veterans who came to this building today to remind people in the Capitol the true costs of war.

We cannot question their bravery. We cannot question their sacrifice. And they stood with us today to make the simple point: When will Congress do its job?

There is something inexcusable about people who will stand in this Chamber and swear an oath not to a President, swear an oath not to an authoritarian leader, swear an oath not to a political party; they swore an oath, all 100 of us, to the Constitution of the United States of America.

And if there is anything that is plain in that Constitution, it is that a President does not have the power to unilaterally bring a nation and its treasure--to bring a nation and its men and women into conflict without a say of Congress.

This is not a partisan issue. This is not a left or right issue. It is a right or wrong. Do you stand with the Constitution of the United States of America or do you stand with what our Founders rejected; that we should be a nation where all power, especially the power that sends our soldiers into making the ultimate sacrifice--do we stand with the ideal that that lies with the President and not with this body?

And so I am telling you right now, those who feel that this vote is an inconvenience to them, those that feel offended that we are having an hour--an hour--debate of what we are entitled to when we bring up a War Powers Resolution, I say to those who feel angry--how dare we try to force the Senate to try to focus on this war--I say to you: I don't care about your objection.

We have privileges as Senators, and I refuse to let business as usual go on in this body. I and my colleagues will bring up these resolutions again and again and again as more and more Americans on both sides of the aisle see this war for what it is: one President's decision costing all Americans, costing us at our homes, around our kitchen tables, costing our budgets, and then costing the greatest cost of all, the lives of our men and women in service.

In a few moments, we will take a vote. I know what the outcome of that vote will be. But my dear friend Tim Kaine, who has brought these War Powers Resolutions--not just about this war, not just about our war that we declared with Venezuela or bombing ships in the Atlantic--he has called this question before, and he quoted a great faith leader. The outcome of this vote, I know what it will be, but he quoted that faith leader in saying simply: I was not called to be successful. I was called to be faithful.

That is the real issue before us right now. Are we faithful to the oath that we swore to uphold the Constitution? Are we faithful to the most sacrosanct ideals of this Republic? Are we faithful to the service men and women who also swore an oath to this Constitution and make greater sacrifices than any of the hundred of us are making today? Are we faithful to the ideals that this is not a monarchy, that we do not have a King, that we are a democratic Republic with a Constitution and no one is above the law.

This President cannot take us to war without coming through this body. He is not able to do that unless this body supplicates itself before that man and surrenders its responsibilities.

Today, I say no.

Today, we will vote, and whatever the outcome of that vote, we will come back here, again and again, with a simple demand that the world's most deliberative body must deliberate; that the branch of government that was supposed to hold the Executive to account demands some accountability; that the checks and balances designed by our Founders should operate, and we should check and balance his power; that what the American people want and what the American people deserve is to have a Congress that functions, and a President that seems so cocky and confident and is taking us to war should have to come before this body; that the members of his Cabinet sit here and justify both the provocation of why we went to war and what is the endgame--because it is clear to me now that we have seen this from Libya to Afghanistan, President after President taking us to war in the Middle East and leaving chaos, instability, and terrorism and subjugation behind.

This is a moral test for this body. It is not just a vote. This is a moral moment. Where do you stand? It is not whether you stand left or stand right, stand Republican or stand Democrat. The question is, Do you stand with the Constitution that you swore an oath to uphold?

This vote may fail, but this failure is not final because even after this vote, there are many in this body that will continue to fight to uphold the Constitution and make the U.S. Senate do its job.

Business as usual is unacceptable. This fight will continue.

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