President Joe Biden backs an effort by senators in Congress to restrict presidential war powers by repealing two laws that have allowed US presidents to use military force around the globe, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said on Friday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th March, 2021) President Joe Biden backs an effort by senators in Congress to restrict presidential war powers by repealing two laws that have allowed US presidents to use military force around the globe, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said on Friday.Biden intends to "ensure that the authorizations for the use of military force currently on the books are replaced with a narrow and specific framework that will ensure we can protect Americans from terrorist threats while ending the forever wars," Psaki said in a statement to Politico.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request from Sputnik to verify the comments.
On Wednesday, US Senators Tim Kaine and Todd Young re-introduced their bipartisan bill to repeal the 1991 and 2002 authorizations for the use military force (AUMFs) after Biden approved airstrikes against Iran-back militias in eastern Syria last week. Their bill has the backing of several senators from both parties.
The US Constitution gives only the US Congress the power to wage war. But the Congress gave the president broad war powers with the two resolutions - the 1991 AUMF gave the president the power to use US military force in the Gulf War, while the 2001 AUMF approved using force against those responsible for the September 11 terror attacks of the same year.
Successive US presidents have broadly interpreted the AUMFs to send armed forces to countries around the world, including Afghanistan, Libya, Turkey, Georgia, Yemen, Djibouti, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Iraq, Somalia, the Philippines and Cuba.
Biden's explanation that strike in Syria came in "self-defense" in response to attacks by Iran-backed groups did not satisfy top members of Congress such as Senator Kaine, who has demanded a briefing on the administration's legal justification for the attacks.
The repeal of the war powers resolutions would not impact ongoing US operations against the Islamic State terrorist group (banned in Russia), Kaine said in a press release after re-introducing the bill.
