Obama Faces U.S. House Republican Challenge to Support for Libya Mission
Republicans in the House of Representatives will try today to restrict the U.S. military support President Barack Obama is giving the NATO-led bombardment of forces loyal to Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi.
Frustrated by what they term Obama’s insufficient consultation with Congress over Libya, House Republicans scheduled a vote to limit U.S. forces to aerial refueling, reconnaissance and search and rescue missions to support the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s bombing campaign.
The legislation will be debated along with a resolution that would formally support the mission for as long as a year under the 1973 War Powers Resolution -- a measure that lawmakers and aides predicted would be defeated.
“The president’s failure to consult with the Congress” and “to outline to the American people why we are doing this” put lawmakers “in a position to have to defend our responsibilities under the Constitution,” House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, told reporters yesterday.
The measure would bar funds for U.S. military involvement in Libya except for the specified air-support missions and operational planning. Aerial intelligence and surveillance flights would also be allowed.
U.S. aircraft have flown 218 bombing missions in the last 30 days at Libyan ground anti-aircraft defenses or loyalist troops attacking civilians in the effort to quell the rebellion, according to Defense Department figures. The Libya mission began in March.
Growing Frustration
Today’s vote caps a week in which Boehner has sought to address the growing frustration of Republican House members, as well as of some Democrats, with Obama’s argument that he didn’t need congressional authorization under the 1973 War Powers Resolution. The president argues that under that law, U.S. forces are not engaged in hostilities.
The administration sent Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Capitol Hill, where she made a case for the mission during a closed meeting with House Democrats.
“The secretary started with an apology” for the administration’s failure to adequately brief lawmakers, Minnesota Democrat Tim Walz told reporters. “If this visit had come in March, we would have been in an entirely different position.”
Boehner sought to minimize the impact of today’s vote, saying that with U.S. forces already involved, Congress shouldn’t “do anything that would undermine NATO” or “send a signal to our allies that we are not going to be engaged.”
The speaker termed the debate “primarily between the Congress and the president over his unwillingness to consult with us before making this decision.”
‘Pitch for Support’
Clinton’s “very strong pitch for support” for the mission was evidence of the administration’s “concern” that “Congress would end the ability to go forward” in Libya, Ohio Democratic Dennis Kucinich told reporters.
“Any time you have the secretary of state come to Capitol Hill to make an appeal to the caucus, that certainly can have impact,” said Kucinich, whose resolution to order withdrawal of U.S. forces was defeated by a vote on 148-265 on June 3.
Still, said Vermont Democrat Peter Welch, “there is a desire to enforce the War Powers act” because there is “too much history of a little bit of permission going a long way.”
Massachusetts Democrat Jim McGovern, who has been a critic of military intervention in Libya and Afghanistan, voiced concerns that the restrictions were ambiguous.
“I am not happy with the president policing Libya, but I am not sure this is the right thing to do or not,” McGovern said at a Rules Committee hearing on the legislation.
“There are lots of questions” about whether the measure would bar humanitarian deliveries of food and water to civilians or bombing of anti-aircraft guns, he said.
Senate Approval Foreseen
The discontent over Libya is not as widespread in the Senate. The resolution backing the mission that the House will consider today was initially drafted by a bipartisan group of senators led by Democrat John Kerry of Massachusetts and Republican John McCain of Arizona. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, of which Kerry is chairman, is scheduled to debate the resolution next week, and leaders of both parties predict that the full Senate will approve it.
To contact the reporter on this story: James Rowley in Washington at jarowley@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net
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