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Home votes to repeal 2002 Iraq Conflict authorization

US President George W. Bush (L) speaks prior to signing the Joint Congressional Resolution to Authorize US Use of Force against Iraq if necessary, October 16, 2002, at the White House in Washington, DC. From L are House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL), Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

Joyce Naltchayan | AFP | Getty Images

The House of Representatives voted Thursday to revoke the 2002 war permit in Iraq as Congress seeks to limit the president’s discretion in the use of military force.

The chamber passed the measure by a margin of 268 to 161. Forty-nine Republicans backed them except for one Democrat.

The bill goes to the Senate, where the GOP is split over whether to support them. The Chamber’s Foreign Relations Committee plans to proceed next week with its own plan to revoke authorization for the use of military force.

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President Joe Biden supports the House Bill of Representatives to Repeal the Iraq War. His Office of Management and Budget said this week that “the United States has no ongoing military activities relying solely on the 2002 AUMF as its domestic legal basis, and repeal of the 2002 AUMF would likely have minimal impact on ongoing military operations to have.”

Legislators from both parties have feared that leaving the approval in place will give the presidents legal backing to justify independent military strikes. The Iraq war ended almost a decade ago.

The House of Representatives voted to lift the measure in January 2020 after the US launched an air strike in Iraq that killed Iranian General Qasem Soleimani. The Senate, then held by Republicans, did not pass the bill. The Trump administration named the approval measure as the legal basis for the air strike.

(R) Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) hold a critical press conference at the U.S. Capitol on October 4, 2017 in Washington . Direct current.

Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images

Rep. Barbara Lee, D-California, spearheaded legislation that the House of Representatives passed Thursday. Lee, a longtime anti-war advocate, was the only House MP who voted against the war permit in Afghanistan in 2001.

“This authority remains on the books and is prone to abuse as Congress failed to act to remove it,” Lee said in the House of Representatives on Thursday.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., said Wednesday that he would vote on revoking the Iraq warrant this year. He said the revocation of the permit would “remove the risk of a future government resorting to the legal dustbin to be used as a justification for military adventure”.

Minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Signaled Thursday that he would oppose the war permit being lifted, despite support for his faction.

U.S. Army Soldiers from 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, Task Force Iraq, man a defensive position on Forward Operating Base Union III in Baghdad, Iraq, December 31, 2019.

US Army | Reuters

“The fact is that the legal and practical application of the 2002 AUMF goes well beyond the defeat of Saddam Hussein’s regime,” he said. “To throw it aside without answering real questions about our own efforts in the region is reckless.”

Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va., And Todd Young, R-Ind., Led efforts to overturn the measure in the Senate.

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U.S. Chamber of Commerce rips $300 jobless profit, requires repeal

U.S. Chamber of Commerce rips $300 jobless benefit, calls for repeal

A help call sign is posted on a taco stand in Solana Beach, California.

Mike Blake | Reuters

The largest corporate lobby group in America on Friday accused $ 300 a week of unemployment benefits for tricking Americans into staying home and April’s far weaker-than-expected job report.

“The disappointing employment report makes it clear that the pay of people who do not work is dampening the stronger labor market,” said the US Chamber of Commerce in the hours after the Labor Department published its April 2021 employment report.

“One step that policymakers should take now is to end the additional $ 300 weekly unemployment benefit,” added the lobby group. “Based on the Chamber’s analysis, the $ 300 benefit means that roughly one in four recipients takes home more unemployment than they earned.”

A chamber spokesman confirmed to CNBC that it will use similar messages to lobby the White House and Capitol Hill to end the payout.

The group’s attack on federal unemployment benefits came hours after the Labor Department reported that total non-farm employment rose by 266,000 last month, well below the 1 million Dow Jones polled economists expected.

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The Biden government has pushed back arguments like those of the Chamber. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, who appeared on CNBC Friday, dismissed arguments from Republicans and corporate groups that the increased unemployment benefits are encouraging potential workers to stay home.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen also waved such criticisms, telling reporters Friday afternoon that she disagreed that the unemployment benefit increase “is really the factor that makes a difference”.

“When you look at states or sectors or workers, if it is really the added benefits that are hindering hiring, expect it to be either in states or for workers in or sectors where the replacement rate is due [unemployment insurance] is very high – you would expect the placement rates to be lower, “she said.” In fact, you see exactly the opposite. “

Minnesota-born Democrat Ilhan Omar was cynical about the Chamber’s criticism of the $ 300 weekly benefit.

For much of the past year, millions of unemployed Americans have qualified for special federal unemployment benefits to replace income lost from layoffs during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The first such federal unemployment benefit began under former President Donald Trump in March 2020 when he signed the CARES bill. This law gave unemployed Americans a weekly allowance of $ 600, which in many cases was a higher income than workers received while working full-time.

Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Countered that companies should pay higher wages to their workers instead.

President Joe Biden’s US $ 1.9 trillion bailout plan, which went into effect in March, provides unemployment benefits of $ 300 per week. Without additional government intervention, this benefit will expire at the beginning of September.

Some economists and many Republicans have accused the benefit of deterring Americans from returning to the jobs they held before the pandemic.

For example, South Carolina governor Henry McMaster earlier this week ordered the state’s Department of Employment and Labor to withdraw from the federal government’s pandemic programs by the end of June.

“This labor shortage is caused in large part by the additional unemployment benefits that the federal government is providing applicants with on top of their state unemployment benefits,” McMaster said in a press release Thursday.

“What was meant to be short-term financial assistance to vulnerable and displaced people during the height of the pandemic has become a dangerous federal claim that encourages and pays workers to stay at home rather than encourage them to return to work. ” he added.