Senate will vote to repeal Iraq War authorization, Schumer says

Earlier this week, President Joe Biden came out in support of Lee’s bill, becoming the first president to approve ending the authorization.

In a statement, the White House noted that the U.S. “has no ongoing military activities that rely solely on the 2002 AUMF as a domestic legal basis,” and that getting the law off the books “would likely have minimal impact on current military operations.”

A steady cohort of Democrats and Republicans has pushed for decades to rein in presidential war powers, but administrations of both parties have sternly resisted those efforts. Instead, they’ve expanded the commander-in-chief’s use of military force without congressional approval.

But proponents of reform gained significant ground earlier this year, when Biden came out in support of their efforts to claw back congressional authority over war powers.

Additionally, Biden has vowed to work with lawmakers to replace the 2001 authorization with one that is better aligned with the current threats in the Middle East. The 2001 measure was passed in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terror attacks and gave the president broad powers to use military force against terrorists in the region. Lee was the only House member who voted against it.

Next week, Schumer said, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will consider a bill to repeal both the 2002 and the 1991 authorizations, the latter of which paved the way for U.S. military action in Iraq during the first Gulf War.