WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th March, 2021) US President Joe Biden agrees with Senator Tim Kaine that the congressional powers to authorize the use of military force (AUMF) need to be updated, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said in a press briefing on Friday.
"The President has been obviously a close ally and partner with Senator Kaine on a number of initiatives in the past. He agrees that the AUMF has been around for 20 years and it's long overdue for it to be updated," Psaki said.
Psaki said earlier that President Joe Biden backs the effort by senators to restrict presidential war powers by repealing two laws that have allowed US presidents to use military force around the globe
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.
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 after Biden approved airstrikes against Iran-backed militias in eastern Syria last week. Their bill has the backing of several senators from both parties.
The US Constitution gives only Congress the power to wage war. But 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 and the 2001 AUMF approved using force against those responsible for the September 11 terror attacks.
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 the strikes in Syria were "self-defense" in response to attacks by Iran-backed groups did not satisfy some members of Congress like 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 after re-introducing the bill.
