Military Force Authorization: Return War-Making Powers to Congress

Last Thursday the House Foreign Affairs Committee advanced a measure that would repeal the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) against Iraq and the 1991 measure authorizing the same, and another from 1957 — that’s not a typo. The authorization dates back to Dwight Eisenhower’s administration.

The reason to do so is obvious. Our previous two presidents invoked these authorizations as their legal mandate to send the American military on missions that the Congress that passed them never contemplated. President Barack Obama used the post-9/11 2001 AUMF, and the 2002 AUMF, as his mandate for dealing with the Islamic State. His successor Donald Trump used long-ago AUMFs to justify a strike on Iran’s General Qasem Soleimani. This effectively cuts Congress out of its constitutional role of declaring war. Perhaps because presidents in both parties have been recent violators, congressmen from both parties have been willing to sponsor this measure.

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Michael Brendan Dougherty

Michael Brendan Dougherty is a senior writer at National Review Online.

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Last Thursday the House Foreign Affairs Committee advanced a measure that would repeal the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) against Iraq and the 1991 measure authorizing the same, and another from 1957 — that’s not a typo. The authorization dates back to Dwight Eisenhower’s administration.

The reason to do so is obvious. Our previous two presidents invoked these authorizations as their legal mandate to send the American military on missions that the Congress that passed them never contemplated. President Barack Obama used the post-9/11 2001 AUMF, and the 2002 AUMF, as his mandate for dealing with the Islamic State. His successor Donald Trump used long-ago AUMFs to justify a strike on Iran’s General Qasem Soleimani. This effectively cuts Congress out of its constitutional role of declaring war. Perhaps because presidents in both parties have been recent violators, congressmen from both parties have been willing to sponsor this measure.