A bipartisan majority in the U.S. House of Representatives voted to curb presidential war-making powers on Thursday, revoking the 2002 legislation that imbued the executive branch with the authority to invade Iraq.
Forty-nine Republicans joined 219 Democrats in the 268 to 161 vote. The legislation now moves to the Senate. If passed there, President Joe Biden has pledged to sign it.
“Today’s historic vote is a turning point,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Gregory Meeks (D-NY) said on the floor before the vote. “I look forward to Congress no longer taking a back seat on some of the most consequential decisions our nation can make.”
Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) was the sponsor of the bill. In the months following 9/11, she was the only member of Congress to oppose two war power measures. Now one of them has been eliminated.
“To this day, our endless war continues costing trillions of dollars and thousands of lives in a war that goes way beyond any scope that Congress conceived, or intended,” said Lee on Thursday.
Before Thursday’s vote, Rep. Nancy Mace, a Republican from South Caroline, echoed Lee, saying “Three presidents, both Republicans and Democrats, have used this permission to drag out conflicts that will get us into new ones.”
Lee has introduced a second piece legislation that would curb the second war powers act, which paved the way for war in Afghanistan.
But some Republicans say updated executive authority is needed instead of an outright repeal. “We need to replace this with an updated AUMF [Authorization for Use of Military Force] that reflects the threats in the region, the current threats, which is Iran,” said Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX).