Ryan Unilaterally Kills Barbara Lee's Amendment To Repeal To AUMF, Which Has Already Passed Overwhelmingly

Over the last month, Randy Bryce's now famous @IronStache twitter account has gone from 7,000 followers to 121,000 followers. And he's already using it to promote other progressive candidates as well as policies and actions he believes in. Wednesday I saw him reacting to Oakland Congresswoman Barbara Lee's anger at Paul Ryan's decision to secretly-- in fact, in the dead of night-- remove her amendment to the 2018 Defense Appropriations Bill, which had passed overwhelmingly in committee, to repeal and replace an outdated Bush-era Authorization for the Use of Military Force.

In explaining her disagreement with the Speaker to her constituents, her office released this statement:

In a desperate and undemocratic attempt to kill Barbara's AUMF repeal amendment, Speaker Paul Ryan stripped it from the Appropriations bill in the middle of the night without even bringing it up for a vote.

This shows the extreme tactics Ryan will use to uphold the status quo and avoid debating endless wars. It shows an underhanded move to make Barbara's amendment vanish into thin air. And it shows a new low for the Speaker that requires us to come together and take action.

...Congress has been missing in action on matters of war and peace for nearly 16 years. What is Paul Ryan afraid of? Why won't he let members of Congress honor their constitutional responsibility to debate and vote on U.S. military intervention abroad?

Paul Ryan should be ashamed of himself. This isn't leadership, this is autocracy.

If we are going to continue to send our brave servicemembers into battle zones to fight endless wars, Congress must have the courage to take up this debate. With your help, we'll make it clear to Paul Ryan that the American people want Congress to act to stop endless war.

Nor is Bryce the only candidate for Congress pissed off at what Ryan has done. Another progressive veteran running for Congress, Kansan Jim Thompson, sees eye to eye with Barbara Lee on this. "Our founding fathers, in their wisdom," he told us today, "vested Congress with the power to declare war as a check on the President being the Commander-in-Chief. For far too long, Congress has abdicated their responsibility, allowing the President power far in excess of anything our founders envisioned. Whenever we send our sons and daughters to war, Congress should engage in vigorous debate before sending them into harm's way. Congress has not declared war since World War II, but rather passed Authorizations to Use of Military Force. The last Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) passed 16 years ago on September 14, 2001 in the wake of 9/11. The new law authorized force against anyone responsible, or any country that harbored those responsible, for the 9/11 attacks. Congress drafted the law with such broad language that Presidents Bush, Obama, and now Trump used this law for attacks on many different countries in multiple situations. The House Appropriations Committee recently approved a bi-partisan Amendment canceling the authority for the 2001 AUMF. Rather than allow a debate, Speaker Ryan pulled the Amendment in the middle of the night and never allowed the Amendment to reach the floor for debate despite its bipartisan support. Congress owes it to our men and women in unform to debate and authorize any military use of force. Since Speaker Ryan never served a day of his life in uniform, he may not realize the weight of his responsibility to our armed forces. Maybe he does not understand that his decisions have very real life and death consequences for our troops. The men and women of our armed forces perform their duties every day, you would think Speaker Ryan could at least fulfill his."

Vote Vets is backing Lee up in a big way and contacted their own members, telling them that "Last Tuesday night, in the middle of the night, Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan took unilateral action to pull Congresswoman Barbara Lee's bipartisan bill to repeal the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force from the Department of Defense Appropriations Bill.

"Here's the truth: We have troops in Iraq and Syria who were in diapers when the original AUMF was passed in 2001. Congress must do its Constitutional duty and have a new debate about the use of our troops in operations that could never have been foreseen in 2001.

"It is unconscionable that Speaker Ryan has decided to block this bipartisan effort. Our men and women who put their lives in the line for America deserve so much more. They deserve the Speaker of the House of Representatives to do his job.

"Sign VoteVets petition calling on Speaker Ryan to allow debate and vote on Congresswoman Barbara Lee's bipartisan bill to repeal the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force.

"Frankly, this is the kind of debate that the founders intended-- because war powers to rest with the Congress, not the President, and not the Department of Defense. It's time to allow a debate and vote on where and when the President is authorized to put troops in harm's way."