JFP Welcomes Passage of Barbara Lee Amendment to Sunset 2001 AUMF

June 29, 2017

 

Congresswoman Barbara Lee introduced a repeal of the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) as an amendment to the Department of Defense appropriations bill. Her amendment, which would sunset the 2001 AUMF after eight months, was passed by the House Appropriations Committee on June 29, 2017.

 

In response to this vote, JFP Policy Director Robert Naiman made the following statement:

 

“Just Foreign Policy welcomes the House Appropriations Committee’s bipartisan vote to sunset the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force.

 

The 2001 AUMF was breathtakingly and unwisely overbroad, as Rep. Lee correctly noted at the time when she stood alone to vote against it. It was limited neither by geography nor by named targets, nor did it have any time limit. Three administrations have abused its overbroad delegation of authority to target groups with dubious ties to Al Qaeda, far from Afghanistan. 

 

We hope that passage of this amendment will set the stage for Congress to reclaim its constitutionally-mandated authority by setting clear limits on when and where our nation uses military force against groups with alleged ties to Al Qaeda.

 

We also hope that it will set the stage for Congress to block President Trump from using military force that Congress has never authorized against actors in Yemen and Syria that are clearly not associated forces of Al Qaeda, including the Houthi-Saleh alliance in Yemen and Syrian government and allied forces in Syria."