Patriots. That debate has really in many ways come down to one issue which is broadly speaking what is the british constitution and how does it define relations between the mother country and her colonies. More specifically even the real question is what is the political constitutional relationship between the power and the authority of the British Parliament and americas legislators. Between 1774 and 1776 the British Parliament passed a series of laws. In 1774 it was the sugar act. Then a year later the stamp act. In 1767 the townsend act. Then the tea act. Then in 1775 the prohibiting act. Standing behind all these acts was one overarching piece of legislation which i think was the driving force behind all of these particular acts. That was the declaratory act of 1766, which claimed that parliaments authority extended to the american colonies in all cases whatsoever. That meant that parliament was not only supreme over the colonies, but its power and authority was absolutely supreme.
Authority under article 1 of the constitution and actually do whats right. I yield the floor. The presiding officer duly noted. Mr. Risch thank you. Mr. President and fellow senators, were about to vote on an important piece of legislation. Its a piece of legislation that will never become law, but nonetheless it deserves our attention and certainly deserves serious consideration. We know two things as we approach this. Number one, under the constitution, it is absolutely Crystal Clear that only congress can declare war. Number two, which is Crystal Clear, we know the president of the United States has the authority to defend the country. And finally, number three, and this is very important as it relates to this, no one, no one wants war with iran. No one agrees that we should proceed to war with iran. That is simply not the situation here today. There are constitutional questions here we know that we have to wrestle with, and they are difficult ones. The its important to note here, f
Should proceed to war with iran and that is simply not the situation here today. There are constitutional questions that we have to wrestle with and they are difficult ones. The it is important to note here, first of all, that the dispute that has been going on with iran for h a long time has nothing to do with the iranian people. We support the iranian people. They are and have a long history of proud tradition and they deserve substantially better than what they are getting in leadership today. This is an important debate we will have today about war powers in the use of military force and one of the things that is clear but that muddies the water and that is that there is no clear line of delineation between actual war and the use of kinetic force. It is important to have this debate and i believe it should not be held in this context and it should be a policy we are debating that is usable in all contents and i have sat through hours and dozens of debate on war powers and its an ag
Its a piece of legislation that will never become law, but nonetheless it deserves our attention and certainly deserves serious consideration. We know two things as we approach this. Number one, under the constitution, it is absolutely Crystal Clear that only congress can declare war. Number two, which is Crystal Clear, we know the president of the United States has the authority to defend the country. And finally, number three, and this is very important as it relates to this, no one, no one wants war with iran. No one agrees that we should proceed to war with iran. That is simply not the situation here today. There are constitutional questions here we know that we have to wrestle with, and they are difficult ones. The its important to note here, first of all, that the dispute thats been going on with iran for a long, long time has really nothing to do with the iranian people. We support the iranian people. They are they have a long history, a proud tradition, and they deserve substan
Political constitutional relationship between the power and the authority of the British Parliament and americas colonial legislators . And over the course of about 12 years between 1764 and 1776, the British Parliament passed a series of laws. In 1764, it began with the sugar act and then a year later the stamp act and then in 17671768 the townsend acts and then the tea act and then the coercive acts and then in 1775 the prohibitory act. But standing behind all of these acts of british legislation was one overarching piece of legislation which i think was the driving force behind all of these particular acts. And that was the declaratory act of 1766 which claimed that parliaments authority extended to the american colonies in all cases whatsoever. And that meant that parliament was not only supreme over the colonies but in fact its power and its authority was absolutely supreme. Right . So it could pass it could pass taxes which it had never done before and it could pass taxes in the