WASHINGTON -- The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday voted to authorize President Barack Obama's fight against the Islamic State extremist group -- the first vote in Congress to explicitly grant him war powers in the U.S. battle against the militant extremists.
The vote was 10-8, with Democrats in favor and Republicans opposed.
The committee chairman, Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., said he would seek a full Senate vote on the measure before the current Congress ends, but it's more likely that the authorization will be delayed until the next, Republican-led Congress, which starts next month.
"Congress has a constitutional responsibility to uphold and a moral obligation to meet when sending our sons and daughters into war," Menendez said in a statement after the vote.
Lawmakers have just a few days left in the congressional session and little time for a major war debate and vote.
In the U.S. battle against the Islamic State, Obama has been relying on congressional authorizations that former President George W. Bush used to justify military action after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Critics say the White House's use of post-9/11 congressional authorizations is a legal stretch, at best.
Obama has insisted that he had the legal authority to send about 3,000 U.S. troops to train and assist Iraqi security forces, and launch 1,100 airstrikes against targets in Iraq and Syria since September. More recently, the president has said that he wants a new authorization for use of military force.
The measure would authorize the president to use military force against the Islamic State. It would limit the activities of U.S. forces so that there would be no large-scale ground combat operations, except as necessary to protect or rescue U.S. soldiers or citizens, conduct intelligence operations, or provide spotters to help with airstrikes, operational planning or other forms of advice and assistance.
Menendez has said that if the president feels large-scale ground operations are needed, then he should ask Congress for that authorization.
The current measure would be limited to three years and would require the administration to report on the fight every 60 days. He said a three-year time limit would allow Obama and the next president time to assess the situation and make decisions about whether and how to continue military action against the Islamic State.
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., the incoming chairman of the committee, said he could not support the bill and suggested the committee look to the first of the year, and a new Congress, to take up the issue again.
He said Congress and the administration should coordinate on an authorization that would better track the United States' approach to fighting the Islamic State -- something that he thinks any member of the committee would be hard-pressed at this stage to define.
The committee also approved language that would require Congress to reauthorize in three years America's war against al-Qaida, which has been going on since 2001.
Meanwhile, a sweeping defense policy bill that would give Obama the authority to expand the campaign against Islamic militants cleared a major hurdle Thursday.
The Senate voted 85-14 to move ahead on the bill despite objections from Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and a few other Republicans to a provision to designate 250,000 acres of new wilderness. The Senate is expected to pass the bill and send it to the president today.
The bill would authorize the training and equipping of moderate Syrian rebels for two years, and it would provide $5 billion for the fight against Islamic extremists.
The bill would provide core funding of $521.3 billion for the military, including about $8 billion in additional authority, and $63.7 billion for overseas operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Despite Obama's objections, the measure maintains the prohibition on transferring terror suspects from the federal prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the United States.
The bill also would prohibit the retirement of the A-10 Warthog, the close-air support plane often described as ugly but invaluable.
The Pentagon sought cuts in military benefits. Lawmakers compromised by agreeing to make service members pay $3 more for co-pays on prescription drugs and trimming the growth of the off-base housing allowance by 1 percent instead of the Pentagon's deeper 5 percent recommendation.
The legislation would change the military justice system to deal with sexual assault cases, including scrapping the nearly century-old practice of using a "good soldier defense" to raise doubts that a crime has been committed.
The measure would give accusers a greater say in whether their cases are litigated in the military or civilian system and would establish a confidential process to allow victims to challenge their separation or discharge from the military.
The defense bill is one of the few bipartisan measures that enjoy strong support. Congress has passed the bill for 52 consecutive years.
Information for this article was contributed by Donna Cassata of The Associated Press.
A Section on 12/12/2014