Congresswoman Barbara Lee Warns Corker-Kaine AUMF Would Expand, Not Curb, Trump's Ability To Wage Endless War

Joining others who have already made their opposition clear, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.)—who in 2001 was the sole member of Congress to vote against the original Authorization for Use of Military Force in the wake of the the 9/11 attacks—is raising her voice once more against a bi-partisan proposal introduced this week that she says would only strengthen, not curb, the “blank check for war” that Congress has bestowed on the president.

Saying she has “grave concerns” about the bill introduced by Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Lee on Tuesday warned it “would continue all current military operations, allow any president to unilaterally expand our wars, and effectively consent to endless war by omitting any sunset date or geographic constraints for our ongoing operations.”

Read the text of the bill—officially titled “The Authorization for Use of Military Force of 2018″—here (pdf).

According to Lee, the legislation actually “further limits Congress’s role in warmaking by requiring a veto-proof majority to block military action from the president.”

Not alone in her opposition, Amnesty International on Tuesday also came out strongly against the Corker-Kaine bill.

“Since 2001, the U.S. has been operating as if the world is a permanent battlefield, at the costs of thousands of lives, including large numbers of civilians,” the group declared. “Despite this, President Trump has reportedly expanded authority for air strikes outside of war zones, and expressed shockingly callous disregard for civilian casualties. The last thing President Trump needs is a renewed open-ended authorization that gives him a blank check to perpetuate endless war, which is exactly what this proposed bill represents.”