The House is holding two crucial votes on Thursday July 11 which have a credible chance to impose constraints on beginning a war with Iran. It’s a golden opportunity for each of us to exercise our influence as citizens to slow down the rolling juggernaut of war.
Both votes come in the form of amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act. The NDAA is one of those budgetary bills the Senate cannot simply set aside. McConnell will have to rise from his comfy graveyard and actually hold a vote. And even should he succeed in getting the amendments removed from the bill’s Senate version, the House will have another crack at re-inserting them during the reconciliation conference.
The first amendment, offered by Representative Barbara Lee of Texas, repeals the 2002 AUMF (Authorization to Use Military Force), effective immediately.
Last month, the House successfully attached Barbara Lee’s repeal of the 2001 AUMF to the must-pass Defense Appropriations bill. The difference between the 2001 and 2002 AUMFs is that the 2002 legislation specifically authorized military operations within Iraq. Even from a hawkish Republican point of view, there’s no reason to keep it on the books. For one thing, it’s obsolete. The Iraq war is over. Obama used it to justify his war against the Islamic State in Iraq, but that’s over too. For another, the Trump Administration has asserted that it has full authority to attack Iran because of the 2001 AUMF, so the 2002 act is only a sort of redundant back-up line of defense for an Iran war.
The Second, the "No War with Iran Amendment" offered by Ro Hanna (CA-17) and Mat Gaetz (FL-01), is more direct. It says that, in the absence of a direct attack on American forces by Iran, no funds can be used for military action in Iran without prior Congressional consent. It also clarifies that the 2002 AUMF applies only to operations which are conducted within the geographical boundaries of Iraq. That cuts the legs out from under elements of the Administration who have started to claim that the Act also applies to operations to counter foreign actions that they can represent as “threats to or stemming from” Iraq.
Today you can phone your House rep and tell her or him to vote “yes” on these two amendments. If you don’t get a chance to do that, but one or both of these get through, we can still call and ask both our House reps and Senators to work to retain these amendments in reconciliation.