FLIPPING THE SCRIPT: Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee, a longtime advocate of reining in the power of the president to wage war without congressional authorization, has joined Democrat Chris Murphy and independent Bernie Sanders in sponsoring a Senate bill to strengthen the 1973 War Powers Resolution, which presidents since Richard Nixon have largely ignored and argued is unconstitutional.
The National Security Powers Act would clarify the wording of the War Powers Resolution, which has a vague reference to “hostilities,” and would “flip the script” by making the cutoff of funds for combat operations automatic if the president does not secure authorization for military operations that are not purely defensive within 20 days.
“Presidents of both parties have usurped Congress’ prerogative to determine if, when, and how we go to war. Now America’s global standing, treasure, and brave service members are being lost in conflicts the people’s legislators never debated,” said Lee in a statement. “In areas where the Constitution grants broad powers to Congress, Congress is ignored. The National Security Powers Act will change that and return these checks and balances to our government.”
A QUESTION OF CONSTITUTIONALITY: Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 of the Constitution grants Congress the sole power “To declare War,” but Article II, Section 2, Clause 1 says the president shall be “Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States.”
Constitutional scholars have argued the clause giving Congress the power to declare war is rendered meaningless if the president can initiate hostilities and continue to fight a war for years without Congress having any say, or by interpreting limited authorizations for the use of military force (AMUFs) in the broadest possible way to cover an unlimited number of contingencies.
The bipartisan National Security Powers Act would phase out existing congressional AUMFs and require that future authorizations include “a clearly defined mission, the identities of groups or countries targeted, and a two-year sunset provision.”
A companion bill will be introduced in the House by Rep. James McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat.
LITTLE CHANCE OF PASSAGE: While members of Congress have often complained about its war powers being ignored by the executive branch, it has also shown little appetite for a constitutional battle over limiting the president’s power to use military force to protect the nation from threats to national security.
The proposed measure would also seek to increase congressional oversight over arms sales, such as last year’s $23 billion sale of F-35 fighter jets, Reaper drones, and other military equipment to the United Arab Emirates and other countries.
“Article I of the Constitution clearly states that it is Congress, not the president, which has the power to declare war,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders. “The framers gave that power to Congress, the branch most accountable to the people, but over many years, Congress has allowed its oversight authority to wane and executive power to expand.”
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HAPPENING TODAY: The full Senate Armed Services Committee begins marking up the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act this morning in a marathon session that begins at 10:30 a.m. and is planned to go until 9 p.m., extending into tomorrow if all the hundreds of amendments are not dealt with by tonight.
GILLIBRAND WINS INITIAL VICTORY: New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who’s been bucking fellow Democrat Jack Reed over the extent of military justice reform, won acceptance of her bill as an amendment to the NDAA in yesterday’s Senate Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee markup session.
Gillibrand’s Military Justice Improvement and Increasing Prevention Act goes beyond changes in the Uniform Code of Military Justice endorsed by the Pentagon by removing authority to prosecute all serious crime, not just sexual assault and domestic violence, from military commanders.
Because Reed has blocked a floor vote on her bill, which has a veto-proof majority behind it, Gillibrand got the language of the measure into the NDAA on a 5-1 vote with Republicans Josh Hawley and Tommy Tuberville, and Democrats Mazie Hirono and Elizabeth Warren joining Gillibrand, who is already girding for a fight in the full committee.
“This reform is supported by a bipartisan group of sixty-six senators, including the majority of the Senate Armed Services Committee, along with veterans, survivors, and legal experts,” Gillibrand said in a statement. “Any attempt to remove it in full committee will be vigorously opposed. We owe it to our service members to provide a military justice system worthy of their sacrifice.”
BIDEN ON CNN TONIGHT: President Joe Biden takes part in a town hall event hosted by CNN at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati, Ohio, at 8 p.m. The White House says Biden will take questions from people in the audience on the economy and bipartisan infrastructure legislation, among other topics.
NEWS ORGS REQUEST VISAS FOR THEIR AFGHAN WORKERS: A group of 25 major news organizations, including all the major cable and broadcast networks, the New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, Sinclair Broadcasting, BuzzFeed, and others, are appealing to Biden to include Afghans who assisted American media in the program to grant special visas to Afghans who would be targeted by the Taliban.
“We urge the Biden Administration to support the creation of a visa program for Afghans who worked with the U.S. press and now seek safety in the United States,” the organizations write in a group letter to Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“There is precedent for such an initiative. In 2008, Congress passed, and President Bush signed, legislation extending special immigration consideration to Iraqis who had worked with the U.S. news media,” the letter argues. “That program reached both journalists and support staff and extended to their immediate family members. The same sort of program is needed now for Afghanistan.”
AN ‘EXTREMELY HAPHAZARD WITHDRAWAL’: House Foreign Affairs Committee lead Republican Rep. Michael McCaul is continuing to express concern that due to the “extremely haphazard withdrawal” from Afghanistan, thousands of qualified visa applicants may be left behind.
“I mean, there’s about 9,000 interpreters, probably total when it comes to interpreters and contractors and Afghan partners, about 20,000, not to include family, that doesn’t include family members,” McCaul said on CNN yesterday. “I’m glad 700 are coming to Fort Lee in Virginia, but we need to find a safe third country that is close to the Afghan area, one of our allies in that area, where they can be fully processed.”
McCaul says the fleeing Afghans need to be fully vetted to ensure there are no “bad apples” trying to take advantage of the program. “This will take probably one to two years. Many of them haven’t even filed their applications yet.”
McCaul said he’s heard the administration is seeking agreements with the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, other neighboring countries where applicants would not be able to claim asylum under U.S. law if their applications were denied.
WHY, NOT WHO, LOST AFGHANISTAN? Anthony Cordesman, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, is out with a think piece that attempts to go beyond the inevitable finger-pointing about whose policies resulted in the loss of Afghanistan and instead focus the discussion on why the U.S. failed to learn the lessons over the course of the 20-year conflict.
“It does not take much vision to predict that the collapse of the present Afghan government is now all too likely, and that if the current Afghan central government collapses, a partisan U.S. political battle over who lost Afghanistan will follow,” Cordesman writes in the report, Learning from the War: “Who Lost Afghanistan?” versus Learning “Why We Lost.” “It seems all too likely that the debate will focus on Democrats blaming President Trump and Republicans blaming President Biden.”
“The key issue is not why the war was lost, it is whether letting it escalate and prolonging it was worth its cost,” he argues. “There should, however, be a far more serious effort to examine the history of the war and the lessons the U.S. and its allies should learn. This effort should examine the full range of civil lessons as well as the military lessons that emerged from the entire history of the war — and not simply focus on its end.”
“It should address the fact that the losses in the war were driven as much by failures in nation building and the civil sectors as from the failures in combat. It should acknowledge that the Afghan War — like Vietnam and the two sequential wars the U.S. fought after 2003 in Iraq – were counterinsurgency campaigns and not wars against international terrorism.”
ALSO TODAY: The House Defense Intelligence and Warfighter Support Subcommittee meets behind closed doors for a hearing on “Military Intelligence Program Budget Overview,” with Wayne Davis, deputy, U.S. Special Operations Command; Lt. Gen. Matthew Glavy, deputy commandant of the Marine Corps for information; Maj. Gen. Leah Lauderback, director for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance for the U.S. Space Force; Defense Undersecretary for Intelligence & Security Ronald Moultrie; Lt. Gen. Laura Potter, deputy chief of staff for intelligence, U.S. Army; Maj. Gen. Daniel Simpson, assistant deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, U.S. Air Force; and Vice Adm. Jeffrey Trussler, deputy chief of naval operations for information warfare.
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The Rundown
Washington Examiner: Women could have to register for the military draft under Democratic bill: Report
Washington Examiner: Trump associate Thomas Barrack hit with illegal foreign lobbying charges
Washington Examiner: Fauci and Rand Paul call each other liars in debate over Wuhan lab
Washington Examiner: DEA agent charged for flashing gun and badge during Capitol riot
Washington Examiner: Proud Boys leader pleads guilty to burning Black Lives Matter banner and weapons charge
Washington Times: ‘I’m waiting for my number’: Time running out for Afghan allies caught in U.S. evacuation snare
Defense News: There Are So Few People that Get This’: Biden Faces Hurdle in Finding New Pick for Pentagon’s Top Buyer
Inside Defense: House Seapower Lawmakers Blast Navy Shipbuilding Plan, Say More Specificity Needed
Stars and Stripes: Navy’s Top Admiral Defends Ship Cuts In Proposed 2022 Budget, Explains Strategy
CQ Roll Call: Pentagon Budget Puts U.S. At Risk Of Chinese And Russian Aggression, Experts Say
Military Times: 2.7 Percent Raise For Troops, DoD Civilians Next Year Gains Momentum
AP: Putin hails Russia’s air power as new fighter goes on view
Newsweek: Russia Warns Pentagon That Hypersonic Missiles In Europe Could Lead To Conflict
The Hill: Russia Deploys Tanks Near Afghan Border Ahead Of Exercises
Air Force Magazine: US Conducts First Airstrike in Somalia Under Biden Administration
Air Force Magazine: Acquisition Rules Block the Building of War-Winning Networks
Washington Post: TSA issues new cybersecurity rules for pipeline companies
Bloomberg: U.S. Envoy Discusses Taiwan in Tokyo; No Update on China Trip
New York Times: U.S. Details China’s Role In Hacking Of Pipelines
Business Insider: Satellite Photos Show China’s New Aircraft Carrier Coming Together Quickly And Reveals More About Its Design
AP: Pentagon Review: What Happens If ‘Nuclear Football’ Is Lost?
19fortyfive.com: Could North Korea’s Military Defeat a South Korean Version of Iron Dome?
19fortyfive.com: Russia’s Spy Submarine Is One of a Kind (And a Complete Mystery)
Washington Examiner: Opinion: Putin will laugh at Biden and Merkel’s farcical Nord Stream 2 deal
19fortyfive.com: Opinion: Don’t Let China Get a Middle East Military Base
Forbes: Opinion: Why We Know F-35 Support Costs Will Fall In The Future
Calendar
WEDNESDAY | JULY 21
9 a.m. — American Institute for Contemporary German Studies virtual discussion: “Communiques and Capabilities: Making the Aspirations of NATO and U.S.-Europe Summits a Reality,” with Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary for European and NATO Policy Spencer Boyer; Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Linas Linkevicius; Cathryn Cluver Ashbrook, director and CEO of the German Council on Foreign Affairs; former NATO Deputy Secretary-General Alexander Vershbow, fellow at the Atlantic Council; and Jeff Rathke, president of AICGS. https://www.aicgs.org/events/2021/07/communiques-and-capabilities
9:45 a.m. 406 Dirksen — Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing: “Addressing Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities Facing Our Nation’s Physical Infrastructure,” with Sen. Angus King, I-Maine; Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis.; Sophia Oberton, special projects coordinator for the Delmar Public Works Department; John Sullivan, chief engineer for the Boston Water & Sewer Commission; Shailen Bhatt, president & CEO of ITS America; and Evan Pratt, member of the American Public Works Association’s Government Affairs Committee. http://epw.senate.gov
10 a.m. 138 Dirksen — Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee hearing on “Navy and Air Force Weapons Systems Divestments, with Vice Adm. Randy Crites, deputy chief of Naval operations for integration of capabilities and resources; Vice Adm. James Kilby, deputy chief of Naval operations for warfighting requirements and capabilities; and Lt. Gen. David Nahom, Air Force deputy chief of staff for plans and programs. http://appropriations.senate.gov
10:30 a.m. 106 Dirksen — Senate Armed Services Committee closed markup of the FY2022 National Defense Authorization Act. http://www.armed-services.senate.gov
11:15 a.m. G-50 Dirksen — Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on “U.S. Policy on Turkey,” with Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland. http://foreign.senate.gov
12 p.m. — McCain Institute virtual book discussion: “Homegrown; ISIS in America,” author Seamus Hughes, deputy director of the George Washington University Program on Extremism; and Brette Steele, senior director of preventing targeted violence at the McCain Institute. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/authors-insights
12 p.m. — Navy League online “July Prequel” to next month’s Navy League Sea-Air-Space 2021 Conference and Exposition, with Rear Adm. Bill Houston, director of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations’ Undersea Warfare Division; and Rear Adm. Jeffrey Jablon, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet’s Submarine Force. https://sasprequel2021.completereg.com/index.aspx
12 p.m. — Hudson Institute virtual discussion: “The Future of Industrial Cybersecurity,” with Joshua Steinman, former deputy assistant to the president for national security affairs and senior director for cyber security and Ezra Cohen, Hudson Institute adjunct fellow and former acting Defense undersecretary for intelligence and security. https://www.hudson.org/events/1988-virtual-event
3 p.m. 2118 Rayburn — Subcommittee on Intelligence and Special Operations hearing: “Review of the Fiscal Year 2022 Budget Request for U.S. Special Operations Forces and Command,” with Joseph McMenamin, PTDO assistant secretary of defense for special operations/low-intensity conflict; and Gen Richard Clarke, commander, U.S. Special Operations Command.https://armedservices.house.gov/hearings
3:30 p.m. — Atlantic Council virtual discussion: “Modern Mobilization: Defense-Industrial Preparedness for Great-Power Conflict,” Brennan Grignon, supply chain lead at the Defense Department’s Office of Industrial Policy; Mark Cancian, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ International Security Program; James Hasik, nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Center for Strategy and Security; and Steven Grundman, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Center for Strategy and Security. https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/event
8.p.m. Cincinnati, Ohio — President Joe Biden takes part in a town hall event moderated by CNN anchor Don Lemon. Live on CNN and CNN.com
THURSDAY | JULY 22
9:30 a.m. — Center for Strategic and International Studies virtual discussion on U.S.-Korean relations, with former Acting Deputy Defense Secretary Christine Fox, assistant director for policy and analysis at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory https://www.csis.org/events/korea-chair-capital-cable-30-christine-fox
10:30 a.m. — Heritage Foundation virtual discussion: “Enhancing Deterrence in the Indo-Pacific,” with Patty-Jane Geller, policy analyst for nuclear deterrence and missile defense at Heritage; and Brent Sadler, senior fellow for naval warfare and advanced technology at Heritage. https://www.heritage.org/defense/event
11 a.m. — Jewish Institute for National Security of America webinar: “Drone Wars: The Spread of Unmanned Tech on Today’s Battlefield,” with journalist Seth Frantzman, author of the new book Drone Wars; and Charles Perkins, JINSA Director for U.S.-Israel Security Policy. https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register
12 p.m. — McCain Institute virtual conversation with former U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper and former British Prime Minister Theresa May. https://asu.zoom.us
12 p.m. — Institute for Defense and Government Advancement virtual discussion: “Laser Weapons Today and Tomorrow,” with Evan Hunt, director of high energy lasers and counter-unmanned aerial systems at Raytheon Intelligence and Space; Michael Jirjis, directed energy experimentation lead at the Air Force Research Laboratory; and Craig Robin, director of the Army’s Directed Energy Project Office. https://www.defenceiq.com/army-land-forces/webinars
1 p.m. — Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments webinar on it new report: “Implementing Deterrence by Detection: Innovative Capabilities, Processes, and Organizations for Situational Awareness in the Indo-Pacific Region,” with authors Thomas Mahnken, Travis Sharp, Christopher Bassler, Bryan Durkee; and CSBA Council member Chris Brose. https://csbaonline.org/about/events
FRIDAY | JULY 23
11 a.m. — Heritage Foundation virtual discussion: “How Congress Can help America Get More Out of Our Defense Dollars,” with Philip Candreva, senior lecturer of budgeting and public policy at the Naval Postgraduate School; Eric Lofgren, senior fellow at George Mason University’s Center for Government Contracting; and Frederico Bartels, senior policy analyst for defense budgeting at Heritage. https://www.heritage.org/defense/event
12 p.m. — Hudson Institute virtual discussion: “Transforming Defense for a Competitive Era.” with Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass.; Jay Dryer, director of the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s Strategic Capabilities Office; former Defense Undersecretary for Policy Michele Flournoy, co-founder and managing partner at WestExec Advisers; and Dan Patt, adjunct fellow at the Hudson Center for Defense Concepts and Technology. https://www.hudson.org/events/1991-virtual-event
3 p.m. — Woodrow Wilson Center Kissinger Institute on China and the United States virtual discussion: “The Selling of a Centennial, 2021: What the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Propaganda Reveals About the CCP,” Anne-Marie Brady, professor at the University of Canterbury; Aynne Kokas, associate professor of media studies at the University of Virginia; Maria Repnikova, assistant professor of global communications at Georgia State University; and Robert Daly, director of the WWC Kissinger Institute. https://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/selling-centennial-2021
THURSDAY | JULY 29
10 a.m. 1789 Massachusetts Ave. N.W. — American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research in-person event: “America’s ever-shrinking fighting force,” with Mackenzie Eaglen, senior fellow, AEI; Arnold Punaro, former staff director of the Senate Armed Services Committee and CEO, Punaro Group; and former Sen. Jim Talent, senior fellow, Bipartisan Policy Center. https://www.aei.org/events/americas-ever-shrinking-fighting-force
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I want to underscore in the strongest possible manner I can, and I say this with some authority, as you all know, as a result of being a polio victim myself, and being very aware that it took seven decades to come up with two effective polio vaccines. This was done in under one year. These shots need to get in everybody’s arm as rapidly as possible, or we’re going to be back in a situation in the fall that we don’t yearn for that we went through last year.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican from Kentucky.
