May, 21 2019, 12:00am EDT
Congresswoman Barbara Lee passes Defense Amendment That Would Repeal 2001 Endless War Authorization
WASHINGTON
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) successfully offered and passed an amendment today to the Defense Appropriations Act that would repeal the 2001 AUMF in eight months from the passage of the Act. The eight-month period will allow Congress time to draft new legislation to address ongoing wars.
Rep. Lee has offered this amendment several times over the years and has long championed the need to repeal the outdated and overly broad authorization and force a debate and a vote on current wars.
"The 2001 AUMF has been used as a blank check for endless war by three Administrations," said Rep. Barbara Lee. "As the Trump Administration escalates tensions with Iran, it is more important than ever for Congress to reassert its constitutional authority. We must start by repealing the overly broad 2001 AUMF and do our job to debate and vote on any replacement,"
As the only Member of Congress to vote against the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), Congresswoman Barbara has consistently urged Congress to repeal the AUMF. Since 2001, the AUMF has been used to justify military force in 30 countries over 18 years.
Tomorrow at 9:00 a.m., Rep. Lee and members of Congress will hold a press conference on the House Triangle to call for the sunset of the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) with Lee's bipartisan bill, H.R. 1274. The members will also call for an end to the escalation of tensions to ignite a war with Iran.
Congresswoman Barbara Lee, a Democrat, represents the 13th District in California.
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Climate justice advocates on Monday expressed hope that a landmark youth-led South Korean lawsuit—which alleges the country's government is failing to protect citizens from the effects of the human-caused planetary emergency—will have a ripple effect that inspires activists throughout Asia and beyond to take similar action.
South Korea's Constitutional Court is set to hold a second and final hearing Tuesday in the case, which was filed in 2019 by 19 members of Youth4ClimateAction who accuse the South Korean government of violating their rights to life, the "pursuit of happiness," a "healthy and pleasant environment," and to "resist against human extinction."
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Referring to the Paris climate agreement, Amnesty International Korea climate campaigner Jiyoun Yoo said Monday that "strategic litigation is a powerful tool which is being increasingly used to enforce states' binding duty to protect people's rights from the adverse impacts of the climate crisis and ensure there is no backsliding on the international commitments they made in 2015 to prevent average global temperatures from rising above 1.5°C this century."
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Edward Fitzgerald KC, representing Assange, said problems surrounding the assurances by the U.S. were "multifold" and they did not rule out the possibility of a U.S. court ruling that the WikiLeaks founder, as a foreigner, was not entitled to First Amendment rights.
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This post has been updated with comment from the National Iranian American Council.
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