WASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday voted to limit debate on a bipartisan bill that would repeal two military authorizations for use of force against Iraq, setting up a likely vote on passage early next week, 20 years after the March 19, 2003, attack on Baghdad.
The vote, 68-27, in favor of cloture on legislation (S 316) that would repeal the 2002 Iraq AUMF and the 1991 Gulf War AUMF represented years of painstaking work on the part of sponsor Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and co-sponsor Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind. to convince enough colleagues, particularly Republicans, that U.S. national security wouldn’t be harmed by ending the authorities, and that the rule of law and the balance of powers between Congress and the presidency would be strengthened.
“Now almost 20 years to the day that U.S. military operations began in Iraq, the United States Senate begins the process of repealing the Iraq AUMFs … putting the final remnants of those conflicts squarely behind us,” Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a Thursday floor speech. “The United States, the nation of Iraq and the entire world have changed dramatically since 2002 and it’s time the laws on the books catch up with these changes.”
