House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Friday that lawmakers should return to the House as soon as possible to debate a measure authorizing the president’s use of military force in Syria.
Pelosi, D-Calif., sent a letter Friday to Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., demanding that he “call the House back in session immediately to debate any decision to place our men and women in uniform in harm’s way.”
The House left town Thursday for the Easter recess and is not expected to return for two weeks. But Pelosi said she believes the House should abandon the recess in response to Thursday night’s missile strike on Syria, even though there is no indication more strikes are planned.
Congress has not authorized military force since 2002, when it granted President George W. Bush permission to send troops to Iraq.
On Thursday, lawmakers in both parties said the president needs new authorization to use military force, but Republican leaders in the House and Senate have remained quiet on the issue so far and have praised the decision to strike Syria in response to a likely chemical attack in the country earlier this week.
“The president’s action and any response demands that we immediately do our duty,” Pelosi said in the letter to Ryan. “Congress must live up to its constitutional responsibility to debate an authorization of the use of military force against a sovereign nation.”
Pelosi wrote that she believes more military action by the United States will be necessary and congressional input will be required for a long-term strategy.
“As heartbreaking as Assad’s chemical weapons attacks on his own people was, the crisis in Syria will not be resolved by one night of airstrikes,” Pelosi said. “The killing will not stop without a comprehensive political solution to end the violence. The American people are owed a comprehensive strategy with clear objectives to keep our brave men and women in uniform safe and avoid collateral damage to innocent civilians in Syria.”
