Tim Kaine presses for authorization of use of force against ISIS

On the eve of the 9-month anniversary of the U.S. launching military operations against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees, delivered remarks on the Senate floor, challenging his congressional colleagues to finally have a meaningful debate and vote on the U.S. mission against ISIS.

Kaine pointed out that over the past 9 months of war, the U.S. has deployed thousands of troops – including the Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group based in Norfolk – conducted more than 3,000 airstrikes, spent more than $2 billion American taxpayer dollars and seen the loss of American servicemembers, as well as American hostages killed by ISIS in barbaric ways. And yet, Congress has still not taken any formal steps to authorize this war.

“The silence of Congress in the midst of this war is cowardly and shameful. How can we explain to our troops, our public or ourselves this complete unwillingness of Congress to take up this important responsibility?” Kaine asked.“This Congress, the very body that is so quick to argue against President Obama’s use of executive power, even threatening him with lawsuits over immigration actions and other executive decisions, is strangely silent and allows an executive war to go on undeclared, unapproved, undefined and unchecked.”

Kaine made the case that it is immoral to keep asking U.S. servicemembers to risk their lives without Congress debating this mission and reaching the conclusion that it is in the nation’s best interest.

“I hope we remember that right now, in places far from their homes and families, thousands of members of the American Armed Forces are risking their lives on behalf of a mission that Congress has refused to address for 9 long months,” Kaine concluded. “Their sacrifice should call us to step up, do our job and finally define and authorize this ongoing war.”

Since June 2014, Kaine has been a leading voice urging the Obama administration to seek a specific authorization for U.S. military action against ISIS while pressing his congressional colleagues to debate and vote on the mission – one he believes goes well beyond the legal scope and intent of existing authorizations from 2001 and 2002.