After 16 Years, Congressional Debate on Military Force Authorizations Remains Stalled
After 16 Years, Congressional Debate on Military Force Authorizations Remains Stalled by Leo Shane III – Military Times
Senate lawmakers said the deaths of four U.S. service members in unheralded anti-terrorism operations in Africa has brought new focus on the need to update the military force authorizations governing those missions.
But that hasn’t changed the debate.
At a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Monday, chamber leaders said they still don’t see a path forward for a new, bipartisan compromise on the issue, and administration officials testified that they don’t see a pressing need to repeal the 16-year-old authorizations under which U.S. troops are currently operating.
“The 2001 and 2002 authorizations to use military force remain a sound basis for ongoing U.S. military operations against a mutating threat,” Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said, adding that “any new congressional expression of unity” for U.S. troops would be welcome, if not necessary…
