Gregory Meeks

Mr. MEEKS

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I made very clear that there is no disagreement in Congress that Iran is a bad actor. It is a state sponsor of terror. I have said it over and over again in my career, and I think every Member of Congress has said it over and over again. That is really not what this concurrent resolution is really about. This resolution really is a stunt meant to try to cast a shadow on the imminent Iran War Powers Resolution debate that is going to follow this. This came up today, just at the last minute, to try to throw it in specifically because of the debate. Both things can be true, Mr. Speaker. Congress can recognize that Iran is a bad actor, as we have done multiple times, and the President of the United States cannot unilaterally drag our country into war without congressional deliberation, debate, and authorization. The Constitution of the United States of America says that only Congress can declare war. So that is what the next debate will be all about. Do we want to live up to what we took an oath of office and take a vote for the American people to see where everyone stands and to be sure that we are not giving away our power to the executive branch of government and that we in Congress are going to do our job that the Constitution states that we should do? If the Constitution wanted one person to make that decision, then it would have so stated. Yes, I will be voting for this resolution, absolutely, 100 percent. I have voted for so many other similar resolutions over the years. However, I plan to also do my constitutional duty to take my responsibility, not to give it away to the executive branch of government and not to shrink from my responsibilities. I plan also on voting for the War Powers Resolution on Iran in the debate immediately following this resolution which we have passed numerous times in this House. It is a stunt, but, unfortunately, that is where we are, as opposed to doing real business. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. MEEKS

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, in Donald Trump's own words and the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's own words, the United States is at war with Iran. The question is: Did Congress authorize the war as the Constitution requires? Did the President present anything before Congress? Did the Congress have any debate? Did any administrative authority come before the House Foreign Affairs Committee to testify? The answer to that is no. The question is: Was there any imminent threat requiring the use of force? The administration has not presented one. In fact, the word ``imminent'' does not appear even once in the administration's own war powers notification. Mr. Speaker, you can't find the word ``imminent.'' Did the Trump administration even bother making the case to the American people or to Congress? Just 8 days ago, during the State of the Union Address, the most visible platform a President has, he could have laid out the rationale for military action, as other Presidents have. Instead, Iran was just a footnote in a record-long speech. This is a war of choice that was launched by this administration without authorization, without clearly stating objectives or a defined endgame, and without explaining how they intend to keep Americans safe. The chaos unleashed will not be borne by the President's family. It will be borne by our men and women in uniform who will face retaliation from Iran and its proxy networks. It will be borne by innocent civilians at heightened risk of attacks from Iran's aligned terrorist cells. It will be borne by American families paying more for groceries, for electricity, and for gasoline, all for Donald Trump's war of choice. Americans woke up on Saturday to the news that the United States is again at war in the Middle East. They don't know for how long because the President has not articulated a clearly defined endgame. Military action without a defined strategy invites escalation, mission creep, and failure. We should have learned this lesson already. Why? We should have learned it already from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam. As Benjamin Franklin once said: When you fail to plan, you plan to fail. This War Powers Resolution is simple. This is not a vote on Authorization for Use of Military Force. This simply demands that the President of the United States come to Congress, as our Constitution demands, to seek authorization for what he, himself, has described as a war. Just abide by the Constitution. We all bring our hands up and swear when we are sworn in and say we will abide by the Constitution. You would think that the President of the United States would do just that. This War Powers Resolution does not prevent the United States from defending itself. It does not stop the President from responding to an imminent attack. It does not limit us from protecting our troops. I have served in Congress for 28 years, and I have been in this Chamber as this body has done its most sacred and serious work deliberating whether to send our American servicemembers into harm's way. It is a difficult vote. It is a serious vote. Probably--not probably--without question, the hardest votes that I have ever had to take, but that is my responsibility. I took a pledge to the Constitution that I would follow it. I was here for the vote after 9/11 to go into Afghanistan, a heavy decision. The President brought information in. We had dialogue. We had conversation. We had debate. We did something else. In the House Foreign Affairs Committee, we had hearings. We had administration officials come in. I wasn't even the ranking member or the chair or anything else. I was just a member of the committee. I could call the administration and say: I need to speak to a Deputy Secretary or the Secretary, and they would come into my office, and we would have this dialogue to determine whether or not we were going to go into this war. Has that happened now? For over a year, for all the times, not once, not once have we had a hearing in the House Foreign Affairs Committee. We have asked to have individuals who were negotiating. Unfortunately, some of them are not employed by the State Department, et cetera, like Mr. Kushner and Mr. Witkoff, who all are friends of the President's, basically real estate negotiators who were just half an hour in Geneva, flipping back and forth from two major negotiations. If it was serious, I wouldn't have been in the White House, when the President was supposed to have been honoring individuals after we had lost the lives of six servicemembers, talking about curtains and how I redecorated the White House. This is too serious a decision for me and I would hope for the President of the United States also. Getting the facts in Iraq, the Secretary of State came before and testified, went before the U.N., talked to the American people. Now, I disagreed because I didn't see the connections after I got the information on Iraq, so I voted no. I agreed on Afghanistan. However, the point here is, the President obeyed the Constitution because he came to Congress first and allowed the Members of Congress to make a determination. What has happened year after year in my time here, I have watched Congress gradually relinquish its authority on matters of war to the executive branch. We have allowed overly broad Authorizations for the Use of Military Force to remain on the books. We have permitted Presidents of both parties to commit forces without a vote. This war with Iran is the most extreme example of that abdication. The Framers rejected the idea of a king, meaning one person making a decision without consultation, without giving any reason to this body. It was absolutely rejected. We are not under an authoritarian government, like Russia, for example, where Vladimir Putin can go to war and he doesn't have to worry about the Duma. They are not a body that has the responsibility that we have in this Congress, so he can go on and fight a war that he has created without worrying about having to talk and being accountable to anyone. Our Founding Fathers did not want that. They didn't want a king. That is why we were created as a body. It is long past time for us to reclaim and stand up for that authority, for I tell you, even though he may want to think he is, Donald Trump is not a king. If he believes the war with Iran is in our national interests, then he must come to Congress and make the case. Show the facts. Show what the intelligence says. Come to Congress and allow us to ask the questions. We have had three scenarios. The so-called Gang of Eight met once. Then they got another phone call right beforehand. Then the so-called Gang of 20 met once. That is all we have heard from the President. I oppose this war of choice, but guess what, Mr. Speaker, each Member here must make clear with their own vote where they stand on that decision. The President has initiated hostilities without a clear mission and without a coherent strategy and without a defined endgame. Some Members of Congress may decide after they see everything--we may not see it together in the same way, but the evidence and the case comes here and then we take a vote. As was the occasion for me back in 2003, I voted one way, and the majority voted another way. The President had the authority. Another time, I voted the way the majority voted. But each time they came to us. That is what this debate is about and that is what we need to do. Now, as I see this, the President has initiated hostilities without a clear mission, without a coherent strategy, and without a defined endgame. This open-ended, undefined military engagement is precisely what the War Powers Resolution was designed to restrain. We are not the Iranian Parliament. We are not a rubberstamp Congress, or at least we shouldn't be a rubberstamp Congress. However, in this scenario, we see that whatever this President wants, my colleagues on the other side will just rubberstamp it. We should be a coequal branch of government, and our duty is not optional. It was written in the Constitution. The Framers gave Congress this authority because they believed no single person should have the power to take this Nation to war alone. Today, we either defend the principle or we surrender it. I choose to defend the Constitution and defend the principle and do my job that I put my hand up and swore I would. Hard votes, easy votes, I will take them all because that is what I swore an oath to do. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, all I will say is that if Iran has been an imminent threat for 47 years, the word ``imminent'' then loses all meaning. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Jeffries), the Democratic leader in the United States House of Representatives, from Brooklyn, New York.

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), the person who is the greatest Speaker in the history of the United States Congress, the first woman, and the distinguished Speaker Emerita.

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentlewoman from California.

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Massachusetts (Ms. Clark), the esteemed whip of the Democratic Caucus.

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Massie), who is the sponsor of this important resolution.

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Khanna), the cosponsor of this important resolution.

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Davidson), an esteemed member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters), the ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee.

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Raskin), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee.

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Himes), the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee.

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman from Connecticut.

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Jacobs), the House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member on the Africa Subcommittee.

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I remind the gentleman that this is a Massie bill. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Nadler).

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Castro), the House Committee on Foreign Affairs' ranking member on the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere.

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Arizona (Ms. Ansari).

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Ms. Omar).

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), the ranking member of the House Rules Committee.

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I thought the President would follow the Constitution. I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Deluzio).

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Doggett).

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I never heard Donald Trump say it was an imminent threat. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. Gomez).