Mind. Created by cable, in 1979, cspan is brought to you by your local cable or satellite provider. Cspan, your unfiltered view of government. The house and Senate Democrats spoke with reporters about u. S. iran tensions including the war powers act legislation thats being debated in the house today. Thank you all for being here. And let me thank all of my colleagues who are here with me this morning. And for joining together for this enormously important piece of legislation. A bill which would prevent any funds from being used for a war with iran without congressional approval. And the senate, this is being cosponsored by harris, bloomen thal and other, and im very pleased that the house leadership has committed to seeing that congressman conyers similar bill and congresswoman lees appeal of the 2002 iraq umf both come up for votes an i look forward to working with them, to get our legislation passed in the senate. When i look back upon american history, i remember the two most significant Foreign Policy mistakes our country made in the modern era. And those were the war in vietnam and the war in iraq. And let us be clear. We were led into both of those wars by a series of lies. The result, the war in vietnam, cost us 59,000 american deaths. And many others came home wounded in body and spirit. In fact, a whole generation, my generation, was devastated by that war. The casualties in vietnam, laos, and cambodia, are almost in calculable, but they run into the millions of people. In two 2002, and 2003 in terms of iraq, we were told over and over again, that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, that he was working with al qaeda, and that we needed to invade iraq unless we wanted to see another 9 11, or even worse, a nuclear attack. Those claims were lies. The war in iraq led to the deaths of some 4500 brave american troops, and the wounding, physical and emotional, of tens of thousands of others. It led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of iraqis, and the displacement of over five million people, and the increased destabilization of an already unstable region. The war in iraq cost us trillions of dollars. Money that could have been spent to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, provide quality education for our kids, provide health care for the uninsured, and underinsured. And after all of that, after all of the pain and suffering and death, and the expenditure of trillions of dollars, the Iraqi Parliament voted earlier this week to boot u. S. Forces out of their country. And now we have a president who abandoned a Nuclear Agreement we signed with our allies, has turned into a policy of escalation, and appears to be walking us toward another disastrous war in the middle east. And lets be clear. Another war in the middle east could cost once again countless lives and trillions more dollars, more conflict, more displacement, and more misery. As the United States senator, i personally will do everything i can to prevent such a war. Just as we were led into vietnam and iraq by lies, the Trump Administration is misleading us on iran. They have justified the assassination of Qassem Soleimani by claiming that he was planning imminent attacks on hundreds of americans in the region, and yet they produce no evidence that would justify this claim, not even in a classified setting. And that is why it is so important that we are all here today, members of the senate, members of the house, because under our constitution, let us never forget this, it is the congress that has the responsibility, not the president , for waging war. Our Founding Fathers understood that it was only too easy for a president to leave lead the country into a disastrous military conflict, that is why they gave the exclusive power over war and peace to the people elected representatives. Last year, many of us worked together, to pass a war powers resolution on yemen, in which congress for the first time in history used the powers laid out in the 1973 war powers act to constrain the president on matters of war. While President Trump vetoed that resolution, there is no question that it played a major role in signaling to the regime, to the region, that the American People do not support the saudiled intervention in yemen. And now is the time for us to once again come together and make certain that the president will not have one penny to spend on a war in iran unless there is congressional authorization. Senator leahy . I applaud the senator from vermont, and when senator sanders talked about the lies in vietnam, i think back to the pivotal vote on vietnam in april of 1975, when the Armed Services committee, had four or five votes to continue the war, each one lost by one vote. I remember it very well because i was the newest most Junior Member there. What i remember the most, when the chairman of that committee turned to a very, very conservative senator, who had always supported the war in vietnam and did you mean to vote no, and i meant to vote no, mr. Chairman, they have lied to me long enough and bernie, ive never forgotten that. Now, we, you know, if any of irans missiles had killed american soldiers at those military bases in iraq, i think President Trump would have acted much differently, and without consulting congress. And thats a nightmare scenario. Weve been on a path of war with iran ever since President Trump wrecklessly abandoned the iran Nuclear Agreement that our allies joined us on. For too long, this president , and even previous president s, have sent people into, more u. S. Forces, without policy, or obtaining the consent of congress, and too often, the congress has been a willing collaborator in that. The result is endless wars. Thousands of american lives lost. Millions of other lives lost. Trillions of dollars wasted. Now, of course, the president , whoever is the president is, has a right of selfdefense, to an imminent threat, but lets not rely on an authorization which should have been there in the first place, for the use of force to remove Saddam Hussein, in iraq, something that was passed in both, both of us were against that, was passed based on lies and falsehoods from the then administration, to justify attacks now, against iran, 20 years later. Yes, the Administration Official in this, i got to tell you, as the dean of the senate, this just made my blood bill. They said it would be a mistake for the senate to even have a debate about the president s war powers. Read the constitution. Read the constitution. It could embolden irans leader if they saw a difference of opinion among us, if they saw were a democracy and we have differences of opinion, as other, including those in the president s party said that is an insult, its dangerous, it belies a fundamental lack of understanding of congresss role in this democracy. Its our job. Its our responsibility. To debate and vote. Especially involving war and peace and the lives of the men and women in our Armed Services, and their families. So i strongly support it senator sanders bill. We should have this debate. And to have the courage to stand up and follow the constitution and vote. Vote, vote, vote. Thank you. Thank you, senator sanders, for your leadership and courage in stopping war, thank you, senator leahy for your advocacy on human rights, it must be something about the state of vermont. Lets be very clear. The power of congress is the power of the purse. We in the progressive caucus, senator sanders introduced these amendments for the National Defense authorization, which would have stopped frankly the Soleimani Killing or anything that happened afterwards. The amendment said that we will not fund an offensive strike against iran or iranian officials. And senator sanders and others in the progressive caucus said we should not hand the pentagon 738 billion without a restriction on iran. Now, the white house pushed back. And unfortunately, we didnt stand up strong enough. That hasnt been the history of congress. There was a senator, senator in 1969, who had amendments to stop the expansion of the war in vietnam, laos, cambodia, island, and he put in the National Defense authorization that they wont have any funding, and the Nixon Administration pushed back, they tried to get rid of that amendment, but then, the congress didnt acquiesce, they actually passed the church amendment, to prohibit, to stop the wars expansion. And then in 1972, senator church again introduced an amendment, to stop any funding for vietnam and the war. And its no coincidence that nixon winds down the war in 1973. And in 1976, congress stopped funding for the fight against angola. And the come nemunist regime th. My point is congress in the past has been willing to exercise the power of the purse. It is only in this century we have not. We should have frankly stopped the et calation in iraq. We should have stopped the escalation in afghanistan. And now we must stop the escalation in iran. Were not an impotent body. We get to decide who gets funding for these military operations and this bill says absolutely no funding for an offensive war in iran. Thank you, i want to start by commending senator sanders and congressman connor, for introducing this legislation, all my colleagues for standing here, to stop a war with iran. The constitution has been mentioned a couple times. And what this bill does, is reaffirms two important principles in the constitution. One, that congress has the power to declare war. And two, we have the power of the purse. So what this act says, to moms and dads across the country, who pay taxes to their federal government, that were not going to send your sons and daughters to a war in iran unless the congress has acted. Its that simple. President trump should not be able to take taxpayer dollars to send those kids to war unless congress acts. Now, this bill was very clear, that you can of course fund acts of legitimate selfdefense. But what weve seen, from this president , as recently as yesterday, from the folks who sent us on to the hill, is that there was no evidence to support their claim, that there was an imminent attack on our forces, or the United States. None. And so what weve seen is a repeat of what we saw in those earlier cases that had been mentioned. But in vietnam and more recently in the case of iraq. Where people manipulated facts, manipulated intelligence, and manipulated the application of the law to justify unnecessary wars of choice. So this act is Something Else thats very important. It reaffirms that the 2001 and 2002 authorization does not give the president the authority to go to war. I want to thank barbara lee for all of her work over many years on that issue. Because weve just seen in the last couple of week, people like Vice President pence, Vice President pence, haul out the totally false, totally debunked suggestion that iran was somehow part of the 9 11 attacks. That is an established lie. Irans done a lot of bad things. And we all agree on that. But to try to manipulate the facts once again, to try to justify perhaps using 2001s authorization, to attack iran, and other efforts to maybe, through 2002, which dont apply in any way, so this legislation is absolutely essential. What weve seen from the president s attacks and actions over the last three years, including the recent attack, is simply to make americans less safe. And to make iraq and that region more unstable. So we need to use our authority to stop that, and thats what this is all about. So again, i want to thank all of the members here for working to stop an unnecessary war with iran. Congresswoman lee . Well, thank you very much, good morning. First let me thank senator sanders and congresswoman khanna for your steady and consistent and bold leadership and also i want to thank all of our senators here today, who have come to say that first, this cycle of violence has got to stop. Make no mistake, donald trump is responsible for this crisis. He has shunned diplomacy since day one. Filling his cabinet with war mongers, and war hawks. Today, after 19 years, 19 years of endless wars, which i opposed at every step of the way, i stand with my colleagues, to say that the American People do not want another unnecessary war of choice in the middle east. Now, let me be clear. The dangerous and reckless actions taken by donald trump have brought us to the brink of an allout war with iran, and have made us less safe. Now, more than ever, Congress Needs to exercise our constitutional responsibility to stop these endless wars. That includes passing senator sanders and congressman connors no war with iran act, which i am proud to cosponsor. And also, just as an appropriator, let me tell you, the power of the purse has got to be exercised and used at this point. This was passed with bipartisan support in the house in the 2020 bill, but it was stripped by republicans and the Trump Administration from this bill, and now we know why. We have seen the disastrous consequences of the war, based on faulty intelligence before. Again, in 2002, i dont know if you remember this, but i offered an amendment, when the authorization to use military force against iraq came to the floor. This amendment said that, hold up, lets let the inspectors determine whether or not there are weapons of mass destruction in iraq. We wanted the inspectors to go, to verify the supposed weapons of mass destruction before any military action. I think we got maybe 72, 73 votes. Unfortunately, for that amendment. But even then, as flawed as the 2002 aumf finally was, it was never intended or written to authorize future actions against a country that had personnel in iraq. Neither was the 2001 blank check which i opposed. This administration has falsely claimed that the 2002 aumf could be used as the congressional authorization to attack iran. Thats completely outrageous. U. S. Military deployments carried out pursuant to the to aumf dubbed remember operation iraqui freedom, that officially ended in 2001. And the United States recognizes the sovereignty of iraq and considers the Iraqi Government a key ally. Weve known for years theres no military solution in the middle east, and its pastime to return to a diplomatic strategy with our allies including insisting we look at how we get back into the nuclear deal, the jcpoa. The path to peace is not through waging war. We can not allow this president s irresponsible and irrational Decision Making to drag us into another catastrophic war in the middle east. Together with the American People, question can come together and put a check on this president and stop the march to war. I want to thank you all again and thank senator sanders and congressman and all of our colleagues here today for coming forward and raising their voices and, yes, using the power of the purse to say no to the war. The congress is going to finally exercise this constitutional responsibility. Thank you again. Senator gillibrand. Thank you, senator sanders, for bringing us here today. The crisis we are facing today in iran was both unnecessary and avoidable. Without seeking congressional authorization or presenting any clear strategy, President Trump has brought us to the brink of war. Im greatly relieved irans retaliatory missile strikes did not result in casualties of any u. S. Service members caught in the middle of these hostilities. The president s actions have damaged our relationship with iraq. Their call to expel u. S. Troops would create chaos and enable isis to regain their power. Make no mistake, President Trump has made us less safe. The founders of this country gave only congress the power to declare war. They understood the danger of giving too much power to one person. They understood that when war is waged, it is the American People who bear the brunt, who make the sacrifice. Congress must assert its authority before its too late. Thats why im sponsoring the no war with iraq act to prohibit the president from taking any further action with iran unless he Notifies Congress immediately and obtains our authorization. I urge my colleagues to support this critically needed bill immediately. In addition congress should debate and pass my war powers reform resolution, which would repeal the 2001 and 2002 aums. The law will require a war powers authorization based on a clear explanation of the goals of military action, our adversaries, the countries where the Service Members would be sent into conflict. Based on the 2001 and 2002 aums, we have deployed to 20 countries against terrorist groups that didnt even exist when those authorizations were passed. It will stop funding for wars after two years unless Congress Passes a new authorization. We as Congress Must restrain this president and future president s from using open ended authorizations to unilaterally engage in military actions of their choosing. We must end this abuse of power. We must end the abuse of the war powers act, and we must pass no war with iran act today. Thank you so much senator sanders for your fierce, passionate and consistent leadership. Its an honor to work as vice chair of the congressional caucus. And thank you for your long work on this which inspired me. Its great to be with my home state senator and senator gym brand. Thank you. I want to make two points about why we are here. First, we are exercising our authority and our obligation to assert our power over going to war. Second, we have to use all the tools in our toolbox. And the very biggest tool in our toolbox is the power of the purse. So that is why the co