WASHINGTON — House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is turning up the heat on Speaker John Boehner about legally authorizing the Islamic State conflict, while a source says the Senate likely would have to act first.
While President Barack Obama green-lighted US military operations against the group nearly a year ago, lawmakers have yet to pass a measure specifically authorizing those operations. The White House submitted a draft authorization for the use of military force (AUMF) in February, but members of both parties rejected it.
"So the idea that it should be after the election — it's well after the election," Pelosi said. "That the initiative should come from the White House — it has. How could it be that all of this is happening and Congress has refused to have this conversation on the floor of the House?"
Her comments came two days after Boehner essentially declared the White House's version dead.
"The president's request for an authorization of the use of military force calls for less authority than he has today. I just think, given the fight that we're in, it's irresponsible," Boehner told reporters Tuesday. "This is why the president, frankly, should withdraw the authorization of use of military force and start over."
Pelosi and other members from both parties say if lawmakers object to parts of the White House's measure, they should make changes or craft their own version.
That list includes Deputy House GOP Whip Tom Cole of Oklahoma, a Boehner ally.
"I'm very much in favor of picking up the issue and doing it," Cole said during a brief interview, adding members have two options. "Either craft our own, or act on his," he said, referring to the president's version.
Pelosi sounded a similar note.
"The ball is ... definitely in our court to take up this issue and to make some decisions as to how we go forward," she said. "There should be an authorization for the use of military force as we go forward. It's long overdue.
"And every timeline and every requirement that the speaker has asked for has happened," Pelosi said. "Now it's up to us."
In the House, Cole and Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, have been the most outspoken about the need for an Islamic State-specific AUMF.
"Nothing prevents the House or Senate from marking up its own version of an AUMF, except a desire to avoid the political consequences of a vote on the war," Schiff said in a statement. "At the end of the day, it is the Congress that will suffer from its apathy, as the institution will see its role as a check on the president's war-making authority atrophy beyond recognition."
While Schiff believes both chambers should vote on a new war authorization, an aide says the congressman has concluded the Senate would have to act first.
"Our educated guess is that it will have to start in Senate Foreign Relations," the Schiff aide said, "and it will be more important for their members to hammer something out to get the ball rolling."
Twitter: @bennettjohnt
