The House voted Thursday to repeal the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), the war powers measure which authorized the war in Iraq, which ended nearly a decade ago.
The final vote was 268 to 161, with 49 House Republicans joining Democrats to repeal the measure. One Democrat voted against the bill. The measure now heads to the Senate, where it enjoys bipartisan support.
California Rep. Barbara Lee, who sponsored the bill and opposed two separate war power measures in 2001 and 2002, said it was a “long time coming.”
“It’s Congress’ responsibility to authorize the use of force, and that authorization cannot be blank checks that stay as authorizations for any administration to use the way they see fit,” Lee said ahead of the vote.
The White House this week said that they support the measure, the first time the Executive Branch has outright supported revoking the authorization: “The United States has no ongoing military activities that rely solely on the 2002 AUMF as a domestic legal basis, and repeal of the 2002 AUMF would likely have minimal impact on current military operations.”
The House voted to repeal the measure last year, but it stalled in the Senate. The Trump administration used the authorization as justificaiton for the Jan. 2020 airstrike in Iraq which killed Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, leading to heightened tensions with Iran.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he plans to put the legislation on the floor of the Senate this year, noting that revoking the authorization will “eliminate the danger of a future administration reaching back into the legal dustbin to use it as a justification for military adventurism.”
