WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Bill Delahunt’s Foreign Affairs Oversight Subcommittee will hold a hearing tomorrow on H.J. Res. 53, the Constitutional War Powers Resolution.  This legislation improves upon the War Powers Resolution of 1973 to establish a clear and sustainable policy for how the United States goes to war in the post- 9/11 era.

Earlier this fall, Delahunt joined with the legislation’s principal author Congressman Walter Jones and Reps. Wayne Gilchrest and Ron Paul to introduce the legislation.  At the time, Delahunt said: “The War Powers Resolution has never worked…we have no functioning framework for the decision to make war.  This is too dangerous a period of history for us to have no rules and no consensus on how the President should consult with the Congress in making decisions on the deployment of American troops.”  

Delahunt has raised similar concerns regarding the administration’s plans to establish a long term security pact with Iraq without consulting Congress.   Specifically this legislation would improve the War Powers Resolution of 1973 by:

• prohibiting presidential entry into hostilities without congressional action except: to repel and retaliate for an attack on the United States, repel an attack on U.S. troops, or protect and evacuate U.S. citizens; 
  
• providing a more robust presidential reporting requirement so that Congress may be more informed and able to exercise improved oversight;
  
• providing for judicial review to enforce compliance by giving automatic standing to members of Congress; and
  only permitting the use of federal funds for military actions taken pursuant to the resolution.

The purpose of the hearing is to inform Congress and the American people about how Congress and the executive branch make the decision to send American forces into combat.   The panel will examine the operation of the War Powers Resolution over the past 34 years, and in proposed changes in policy and law that would improve the exercise of the war-making powers in promoting the national interest. 

WHO:             Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight
DATE:            Thursday, March 13, 2008

TIME:             9:30 AM

WHERE:        Room 210 Cannon House Office Building

SUBJECT:      War Powers for the 21st Century- The Congressional Perspective

WITNESSES:

Panel I
The Honorable David E. Skaggs
Co-Chair
The War Powers Committee
The Constitution Project
(Former U.S. Representative from the State of Colorado)

The Honorable Mickey Edwards
Co-Chair
The War Powers Committee
The Constitution Project
(Former U.S. Representative from the State of Oklahoma) 

Stephen G. Rademaker, Esq.
Vice President
BGR International

Panel II
The Honorable Walter B. Jones, Jr.
U.S. House of Representatives

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