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A move to write new war powers to authorize the Obama administration's 9-month-old battle against Islamic State militants has stalled in Congress and might even be dead.
President Barack Obama doesn't seem to mind. And while lawmakers say they don't want to give up their check on a commander in chief's authority to use military might, they have little interest in having what would be the first war vote in Congress in 13 years.
Sen. Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was recently asked whether Congress was still going to craft a new Authorization for the Use of Military Force.
After Obama ordered airstrikes in August over Iraq and in September over Syria against IS militants, lawmakers complained that he was justifying the action with dusty war powers written to authorize conflicts after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Today, there is hardly a word about it around Congress.
Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, told The Associated Press that Congress has much to lose if it doesn't act.
"As an institution, we're the ones who are going to suffer because future presidents are going to look back at this and say, 'We don't need Congress to make war.' It's a terrible precedent," Schiff said.
He believes that if a new military force authorization is not passed, the current Congress will have done more to weaken its own power as a check on the executive branch than any other Congress in memory.
In the US battle against the Islamic State group, Obama has been relying on congressional authorizations given to President George W. Bush for the war on al-Qaida and the Iraq invasion. The White House said they gave Obama authority to act without new approval by Congress under the 1973 War Powers Act.
The act, passed during the Vietnam War, serves as a constitutional check on presidential power to declare war without congressional consent. It requires presidents to notify Congress within 48 hours of military action and limits the use of military forces to no more than 60 days unless Congress authorizes force or declares war.
Obama has insisted that he is on firm legal footing in sending more than 4,000 U.S. Troops to train and assist Iraqi security forces and launching thousands of airstrikes against targets in Iraq and Syria. But he also has said that he would welcome a new authorization to cover the current military operations.
