WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia and Counterterrorism, U.S. Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah), and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), on Thursday released the following statement on U.S. Africa Command chief Gen. Stephen Townsend’s justification for the U.S. drone strikes in Somalia earlier this week:
“We’re troubled that no one in the administration sought the required legal authorization from Congress for Tuesday’s drone strike in Somalia especially with no American forces at risk—and apparently, did not even check with our Commander-in-Chief. We need to reestablish a system of checks and balances in our national security to make Congress a part of these decisions about war and peace and put the interests of the American people front and center,” said Murphy, Lee and Sanders. “It’s time to do away with questionable legal justifications claimed by one administration after the next for acts of war like this. We just introduced sweeping legislation that would safeguard and clarify congressional prerogatives in the use of military force and prevent similar instances from happening in the future.”
On Tuesday, Murphy, Lee and Sanders introduced bipartisan legislation to reclaim Congress’s critical role in national security matters. The National Security Powers Act specifically safeguards congressional prerogatives in the use of military force, emergency powers and arms exports. In each of these cases, the president is required to consult congressional leaders and obtain congressional authorization before exercising the powers in question. Any congressional authorization will have to meet specific requirements, including an automatic sunset. Under the National Security Powers Act, any activities lacking such authorization will face an automatic funding cutoff after a specified number of days. You can read more about the bill here.
The National Security Powers Act is supported by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School, the Center for American Progress, the Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC), the Center for International Policy, Common Defense, Concerned Veterans for America, Demand Progress, Foreign Policy for America, Freedom Works, Friends Committee on National Legislation, International Crisis Group, Indivisible, Niskanen Center, Open Society Policy Center, Oxfam America, Project on Government Oversight, Protect Democracy, Public Citizen, Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, R Street Institute, VoteVets and Win Without War.
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