President Obama said Wednesday he is prepared to ask Congress for new authority to combat the Islamic State organization, replacing the administration’s reliance on laws passed more than a decade ago to justify its current military operations against the militants in Syria and Iraq.
“We now have a different type of enemy, the strategy is different,” Obama said at a White House news conference. “It makes sense for us to make sure that the authorization from Congress reflects what we perceive to be not just our strategy over the next two or three months, but our strategy going forward.”
Obama pledged nearly 18 months ago to work with lawmakers to “refine and ultimately repeal” the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force, or AUMF, against al-Qaeda, and the 2002 authority against Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
But White House engagement with Congress on the issue has been minimal since then. The administration has cited the 2001 and 2002 laws as legal justification for airstrikes in Iraq and Syria that began several months ago.
At his news conference, Obama said that he had invited Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III to the White House Friday to brief congressional leaders “about how our fight against ISIL is proceeding, to answer questions, and to assure that Congress is fully briefed on what we’re doing there.” ISIL is one of several acronyms used to refer to the Islamic State.
“The idea is to right-size and update whatever authorization Congress provides to suit the current fight rather than previous fights,” Obama said. “We will be listening to Congress, as well as us presenting what needs to be the set of authorities” needed for the ongoing operation.
Discussions over new legislation, he said, “may carry over into the next Congress.”
In September, a week after Obama authorized airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria, Sen. Timothy Kaine (D-Va.) proposed new legislation for an AUMF against the group. The measure was limited to only one year, and prohibited the use of U.S. ground troops against militants in Iraq and Syria. It also provided a narrow definition of the groups that could be targeted under its authority.
The administration has adopted an elastic definition of “associated forces” tied to al-Qaeda to authorize drone strikes and other military action in Yemen, Somalia and elsewhere that had no role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that prompted the initial legislation.
Although al-Qaeda has specifically repudiated the Islamic State and the two groups have no current connection, the administration has said both the 2001 and 2002 AUMFs are appropriate legal justification because the Islamic State is rooted in a previous al-Qaeda group formed in Iraq a decade ago.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who has proposed new AUMF legislation in the House, called on Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) Wednesday to schedule a debate and vote on a new authorization during the lame duck session of the current Congress.
Schiff’s proposed bill provided for an 18-month authorization for continued airstrikes and limited special operations against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
“Whether it, or some other form of authorization, is ultimately taken up,” Schiff said in a letter to Boehner, “the most important thing is for us to do our duty to American people and the Constitution.”
Karen DeYoung is associate editor and senior national security correspondent for the Washington Post.
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