Senate Moves One Step Closer to Repeal of Iraq War Authorizations

The U.S. Senate voted in favor of a bipartisan bill to repeal U.S. authorizations for war against Iraq.

The Senate voted, 68–27, on March 16 to invoke cloture, surpassing the needed 60-vote threshold, on a measure that would undo the 1991 and 2002 Authorizations for the Use of Military Force (AUMFs). The first authorized the United States to enter Gulf War. This was where Saddam Hussein’s forces were expelled from Kuwait. The second allowed the U.S. military access to Iraq after reports that Hussein was possessing weapons of mass destruction. He was captured by the United States in 2003, and executed in Iraq in 2006.

Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer (D.N.Y.), applauded the bill before it was even put to the vote. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and Todd Young, R-Ind.).

“Now almost 20 years to the day that U.S. Military operations began in Iraq, the United States Senate begins the process of repealing the Iraq AUMFs, the ones of 2002 and 1991, putting the final remnants of those conflicts squarely behind us,” Schumer stated. “The United States, the nation of Iraq and the entire world have changed dramatically since 2002 and it’s time the laws on the books catch up with these changes. The Iraq War has itself been long over.”

Schumer voted in favor of both the 2002 and 1991 AUMFs.

Schumer continued to state that “Americans are tired of endless wars in the Middle East.” He claimed that if the AUMFs from 1991 and 2002 are not repealed, future administrations might abuse them, bypassing Congress’s sole authority to declare War in accordance with Article 1 of the Constitution.

Dick Durbin (D.Ill.), Senate Majority Whip, stated in his remarks prior to the vote that the repeals would make America less American. “a pacifist nation,” It would be a good thing for the United States. “a Constitutional nation.”

On March 15, Sen. Bob Menendez, a Democratic senator from New Jersey, said that repealing the 2002 and 1991 AUMFs would not impact the United States’ response in Iran.

According to a White House statement, President Joe Biden supports the repeal of the AUMFs from 1991 and 2002.

The administration stated that “the United States conducts no ongoing military activities that rely primarily on the 2002 AUMF, and no ongoing military activities that rely on the 1991 AUMF, as a domestic legal basis.

“The U.S. would not have to stop current military operations. Repeal would be a support for the Administration’s commitments to strong and comprehensive relations with our Iraqi counterparts. This partnership includes cooperation with the Iraqi Security Forces and is continuing at the request of the Government of Iraq in an advisory, assist, enable role.”

While the bill is set to pass the Democrat-controlled Senate next week, its fate in the GOP-controlled House is less certain.