The War Powers Consultation Act of 2009:
* Provides that the president shall consult with Congress before deploying U.S. troops into "significant armed conflict" – i.e., combat operations lasting, or expected to last, more than a week.
* Defines the types of hostilities that would or would not be considered "significant armed conflicts."
* Creates a new Joint Congressional Consultation Committee, which includes leaders of both Houses as well as the chair and ranking members of key committees.
* Establishes a permanent bipartisan staff with access to the national security and intelligence information necessary to conduct its work.
* Calls on Congress, to vote up or down on significant armed conflicts within 30 days.
Commission members: Slade Gorton, former U.S. Senator from Washington; Lee H. Hamilton, former Member of Congress from Indiana; Carla A. Hills, former U.S. Trade Representative; John O. Marsh, Jr., former Secretary of the Army; Edwin Meese, III, former U.S. Attorney General; Abner J. Mikva, former Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; J. Paul Reason, former Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet; Brent Scowcroft, former National Security Advisor; Anne-Marie Slaughter, Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University; and Strobe Talbott, President of the Brookings Institution.
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin served as the Commission's historical advisor. John T. Casteen, III, President of the University of Virginia, and David W. Leebron, President of Rice University, served as ex officio members.
John C. Jeffries, Jr., the Emerson Spies and Arnold H. Leon Professor of Law of the University of Virginia School of Law, and W. Taylor Reveley, III, Interim President and John Stewart Bryan Professor of Jurisprudence at the College of William & Mary, served as Co-Directors of the Commission.
The James A. Baker, III Institute of Public Policy at Rice University, the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University, Stanford Law School, the University of Virginia School of Law, and the William & Mary School of Law served as partnering institutions.
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Congress being given more secrets and classified information in a possible lead up to war? Why not just surrender now.
Anytime a bipartisan panel says something, it must be true.
~~Pong!
Related:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2042537/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2042506/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2042432/posts]
Congress has the sole power to declare war. However, the president is the commander in chief. Any law requiring him to "consult" would make him less than the commander in chief and would therefore be unconstitutional.
I know the big brains in Washington don't actually care about the Constitution but once in a while couldn't they just pretend?
The Go Into Harms Way and Have The Rug Pulled Out From of You Act of 2009.
I would think that most problems could be solved with 30 mega-tons within 7 days. This is the same crew that gave us surrender in Iraq instead of the surge. If Schumer supports it I know it is a bad idea. I expect Obama will flip-flop on this in the first week.
The only known (to me) movement conservative on the panel is Ed Meese. Scowcroft and Baker are 100% utilitarian - they don’t care much about ideas.
This would be a major power grab by the legislative branch at the expense of the executive. Certainly any President would veto it. If the War Powers Act is unconstitutional, this thing, with a permanent congressional staff to serve a check on executive military authority, is an abomination on a par with the stupid “co-presidency” that was briefly contemplated back when Reagan became the Republican Nominee in 1980.
And who exactly asked for this?
Anything with Baker and/or Christopher—I disregard.
I have no use for either of these two clowns.