congressional_record: CREC-2026-03-02-pt1-PgS739
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| granule_id | date | congress | session | volume | issue | title | chamber | granule_class | sub_granule_class | page_start | page_end | speakers | bills | citation | full_text |
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| CREC-2026-03-02-pt1-PgS739 | 2026-03-02 | 119 | 2 | WAR POWERS RESOLUTION | SENATE | SENATE | ALLOTHER | S739 | S740 | [{"name": "Peter Welch", "role": "speaking"}] | 172 Cong. Rec. S739 | Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 39 (Monday, March 2, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 39 (Monday, March 2, 2026)] [Senate] [Pages S739-S740] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] WAR POWERS RESOLUTION Mr. WELCH. Mr. President, we must act. The President has made a decision unilaterally without consultation of Congress to start yet another war in the Middle East. It is a reckless decision that is very detrimental to the well-being of our country and very threatening to the Constitution. There are three issues that are absolutely essential to consider by this Congress. First of all, No. 1, America does not want this war. And I trust the American people. The reason America does not want this war is they have seen it before. They saw it in Iraq where the justification was weapons of mass destruction. They saw it in Afghanistan where the justification was getting rid of the Taliban. They saw it in Libya where the justification was getting rid of Qadhafi. In each case--Saddam, Qadhafi, the Taliban--yes, they were evil people doing bad things--but what was a lie to the American people, and they saw, was that there were no weapons of mass destruction. The Taliban is now back in power after 20 years of war, and the chaos that was sown in Libya lives with us to this day. America understands that it is easy for a President to assert he wants to go to war. He is the Commander in Chief. He can do it, as he has done in this case, by bypassing Congress. But what the American people have seen is that it is easy to start a war, but the consequences and the costs are not avoidable, and they have been very damaging to the well-being of the people of this country; they have been very damaging to our prosperity; and, of course, they have caused immense loss of life of our wonderful soldiers and men and women in uniform. The American people get it. No. 2, we cannot, under our Constitution, go to war on the basis of a decision by one man. The whole point in our Constitution of vesting war-making authority in the Congress was because our Founders saw how Kings abused their powers to go to war, how an autocrat abuses his power to unilaterally decide to go to war. A quote from Abraham Lincoln: The provision of the Constitution [that is, our Constitution] giving the war-making powers to Congress, was dictated . . . by the following reasons . . . Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object. This, our Convention understood [Lincoln said] to be the most oppressive of all Kingly oppression and they resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us. Yet, in fact, that is exactly what is happening now. One man--Donald Trump--unilaterally decided to start this war. It is the same person, by the way, with--who as candidate Trump decried, and quite rightly, the rush to war. He decried especially wars of regime change as total failures. He decried the $7 trillion that was spent in Iraq and Afghanistan. So now, we have a new situation where the President woke up one day, announced he is going to war, and abandoned his America First commitment. What is clear here is this war is not necessary. Iran, the Ayatollah, the regime is a threat. We have been containing that threat. There were negotiations about their nuclear capabilities that were making significant progress. Don't forget that this administration is the one that tore up the agreement in the Obama administration where we had eyes on exactly what was happening in the Iran nuclear program and there was compliance. And we have substituted it with bluster and now, ultimately, this war of choice. This is a war that has been pushed hard by Prime Minister Netanyahu, who just before the war started was whispering in the ear of Donald Trump, and it is pretty clear that the President was persuaded by Netanyahu. The President should be more persuaded by the voices of the American people who have learned lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan and even going to back to Vietnam. The third reason Americans don't want this war is they want us in this Congress, in this administration, to focus on the needs of Americans. We have a situation in Vermont now that is similar to what people face all over this country. Healthcare is something that is out of reach for everyday Americans. That is absolutely essential. And you, yourself, and I and others did our level best to try to extend tax credits to working families and farmers and small businesses who depended on them to be able to continue to have healthcare. With the One Big Beautiful Bill, 15 million people are losing Medicaid access. What we are seeing is the acceleration of income inequality where people [[Page S740]] who work hard, oftentimes two jobs, who don't have more time in their life to even work more, at the end of the month can't pay their bills. And isn't it time that we focus on meeting the needs of Americans? Basic things like healthcare, like affordable housing, like childcare, things that make a family secure, things that make a community strong. There is absolutely no coherent rationale that the President has offered for the end game of this war against Iran. And there is absolutely no explanation from the President about why he has abandoned what he asserted was his longtime opposition to wars of regime change. And this is the question for all of us in this Chamber who serve in the U.S. Senate and who have responsibilities under the Constitution, specifically article I: Will this U.S. Senate allow a single man to plunge this Nation into war when it is our constitutional responsibility to make a decision as to whether to send our men and women into combat? That is our responsibility and vote, as all of us will. We cannot avoid our responsibility to vote, to stand and to be counted. Now, at the close, I want to say something that I know every single one of the Members of the Senate feels very strongly, and that is support for our men and women in uniform. We have brave members of the Vermont Guard that are serving right now, and I speak of my concern for them, their well-being, and their families. But I express that same strong sensibility toward every family who has a servicemember serving in this conflict, and I say that to every servicemember in the conflict: We support you. But, Mr. President, this is a wrong decision. You do not have the right to make this decision unilaterally. And I say to my colleagues in the Congress: We must stand up and do our job and meet our responsibility. And that is why I am a strong supporter of Senator Kaine and Senator Paul's War Powers Resolution. I yield the floor. ____________________ |