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Floor Speech
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Ms. DUCKWORTH. Mr. President, it wasn't too long ago that Donald Trump won the 2024 election, in large part, due to his promise to get our Nation out of foreign wars and bring prices down for Americans across this great Nation.
Well, 18 days into his war of choice in Iran that is costing taxpayers over a billion dollars each day, the American people can see with their own eyes that he has broken and continues to break those promises.
Gas, food, housing, basic everyday necessities, costs are skyrocketing, not falling.
Wars? Thirteen servicemembers are dead, over 200 have been wounded, and thousands more Americans are located in the Middle East with a target on their backs because of his choice to start a war with Iran, a choice he simply had no right to make unilaterally, but that did not stop him.
Thirteen American lives and at least 1 billion taxpayer dollars a day are far too high a price to pay for an unauthorized and needless war that Trump himself cannot articulate a coherent or consistent justification for.
So I am here today to support the Senator from New Jersey's War Powers Resolution that would reassert the American people's constitutional say over decisions of war and peace through their elected representatives and put an end to this unjustified, illegal war.
And I join Senator Booker in demanding that the majority leader immediately hold public hearings that bring members of the Trump administration under oath and force them to justify why they are sending our sons and daughters into harm's way halfway around the world and tell us their plan for keeping Americans safe.
The truth is, I wish I didn't have to be here doing this, and I am angry that it is not even the first time this month that I have had to come here to beg my Republican colleagues to do their jobs and stop shirking their constitutional duty to the American people and our troops and hold a public hearing on the immediate risks, ongoing objectives, and plan to end Trump's illegal war of choice.
Look, our troops will always do their jobs to the best of their ability just as they have since Operation Epic Fury began. We all agree that they are doing an incredible job in very dangerous circumstances, but they deserve leaders in Washington who will do our jobs and actually ensure that their mission is justified, actually feasible, and worthy of the sacrifices we are asking them and their families to make. They don't deserve a Commander in Chief who hides his draft-dodging incompetence behind their valor by acting as if criticizing his bad and even illegal decision is the same thing as criticizing our troops-- because it is not.
My Republican colleagues know as well as I do that the Constitution gave the American people the authority to send our troops to war through their elected representatives in Congress. We in these Chambers are the ones tasked with deciding when and how Americans are sent into combat. We are the ones charged with that most solemn duty. Yet, Trump is acting as if article I simply doesn't exist, as if obeying the Constitution is optional, as if our founding document is just a yellowing, crumpled piece of paper he can crumple up at will.
Refusing to allow him to get away with this should not and must not be a partisan issue. I ran for Congress so that when the drums of war started beating beneath this Capitol dome, I would be in a position to make sure that our elected officials fully considered the true cost of war, not just in dollars and cents, but in human lives as well.
Look, I am no dove. I know there are certain solemn, urgent times when our military must be called upon to defend our Nation. There are certain moments when the threat in question is significant and imminent, when military force is the most effective tool at hand, when using it is necessary to protect America and her interests, and when using military force will not backfire and create more threats than it eliminates.
Trump has shown no evidence that this is one of those times. He has had weeks. While his administration avoids accountability to the public, American heroes keep dying. American diplomats have been targeted and displaced, and American families who have been stranded in the region are fearful of their safety. Here at home, American farmers who are heading into the planting season are facing skyrocketing costs of fertilizer and diesel fuel trapped in the Strait of Hormuz, a challenge that will result in many of them losing their family farms.
If they actually believe that this war is justified, then the administration needs to come to Congress and do their jobs, to explain their case and give the American people a say through their elected representatives. They need to respect the American people enough to actually tell them why they are being forced to bear the cost of this conflict. They need to prove that they have thought this through enough that they can tell us what their plan is to stop the war and get to an end state in Iran that would make us safer, not more threatened.
Then, when the case has been made and when Congress' debate is done, we must vote. It is our burden. It is our responsibility. It is the least we can do for those who are willing to sacrifice everything to safeguard our democracy; but until and unless they do that, we here need to do everything we can to force the administration to do their part. We can start by passing this the War Powers Resolution offered by Senator Booker.
So, to my Republican colleagues, please, join us in finally reining in this unjustified war and in demanding that the administration come before the American people and publicly attempt to convince us that the mission is worthy of the sacrifices it requires. Then, after we have had that debate, we can show a fraction of the courage of our warriors and cast the tough vote.
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