WASHINGTON - The Senate is expected to pass bipartisan legislation on Wednesday that would repeal the authorizations Congress passed in 1991 and 2002 for the U.S. wars in Iraq.
The bill would repeal the authorization for the use of military force, or AUMF, for the Gulf War in 1991, under President George H.W. Bush and the invasion of Iraq in 2003 under President George W. Bush.
The bill wouldn't affect the AUMF that Congress passed in 2001 after the Sept. 11 attacks. Presidents have relied on the post- 9-11 measure as part of the war on terror to authorize military operations against terrorist organizations considered a threat to the U.S.
President Joe Biden will sign the legislation if it comes to his desk, according to the White House.
The measure is expected to pass the Democratic-led Senate, but its fate is not clear in the GOP-led House.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif, told NBC News that they would have to look at what their bill does first when asked if he would bring it up for consideration.
Senator Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced on Tuesday that he did not support the AUMF repeals.
I am opposed to Congress sabotage of military force authorizations in the Middle East. He said that the 2002 AUMF bears directly on the threats we face today in Iraq and Syria from Iran-backed terrorists because of the fact that our terrorist enemies aren't sunsetting their war against us. In 2020, President Donald Trump invoked the 2002 AUMF in the U.S. killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by a drone strike in Baghdad.
In 2011, the U.S. withdrew troops from Iraq when Biden was vice president.
The Senate recently voted on several amendments to the war powers repeal bill, including one that would have repealed post- 9-11 war authorization. The measure failed in a 9 -- 86 vote.
The Senate passed the AUMF bill in a 65 -- 28 procedural vote that garnered support from 18 Republicans.
Congress has previously fallen short of passing repeals of the Gulf and Iraq war authorizations because of the intense division over the 2001 measure. Over the last decade, a number of lawmakers have called for its reversal, arguing that the authorizing language is too broad and has been misused. The debate over the measure has often hit an anguish, with some members of Congress wanting to change the language and others wanting to keep it intact.
In 2021, when Democrats controlled the House, a bill to repeal the 2002 AUMF passed with support from 49 Republicans. The bill was never taken up by the Senate.