In a significant move to reassert Congress’s authority over military action, the U.S. Senate on Tuesday approved a bipartisan measure to repeal the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq (AUMF).
The repeal, which provided the original legal basis for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, passed with a strong bipartisan vote of 65 to 33. The vote marks the latest effort by lawmakers to claw back the war-making powers that have increasingly shifted to the executive branch since the 9/11 attacks.
Proponents of the repeal argued that the two-decade-old authorization is obsolete and poses a risk of misuse by a future president to justify unrelated military engagements abroad.
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“That’s the way the war ends, not with a bang but a whimper,” Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine told the AP after the vote, which lasted only a few seconds with no debate and no objections. Still, he said, “America is forever changed by those wars, and the Middle East is too.”
The legislation now heads to the House of Representatives, where a similar measure has previously garnered support, though the path to the President’s desk is still pending.
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