{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.paul.senate.gov/dr-rand-paul-to-force-u-s-senate-vote-on-war-powers-resolution-concerning-u-s-troops-in-syria/", "Dr. Rand Paul to Force U.S. Senate Vote on War Powers Resolution Concerning U.S. Troops in Syria", "2023-12-07", "2023", "2023-12", "Republican", "Senate", "KY", "Rand Paul", "P000603", "www.paul.senate.gov", "paul", "https://www.paul.senate.gov/news/", "scraper", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:\n\nDecember 7, 2023\n\nContact: Press_Paul@paul.senate.gov, 202-224-4343\n\nDr. Rand Paul to Force U.S. Senate Vote on War Powers Resolution Concerning U.S. Troops in Syria\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, as a continuation of his efforts to return war powers to Congress and end the American military presence in Syria, which needlessly puts our troops\u2019 lives in danger and risks further escalation of conflict in the Middle East, U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) will force the U.S. Senate to vote on his War Powers Resolution (S.J. Res. 51). His resolution directs the president to remove all U.S. Armed Forces from hostilities in and affecting Syria within 30 days of its enactment. Dr. Paul\u2019s resolution is currently co-sponsored by U.S. Senators Mike Lee (R-UT) and JD Vance (R-OH).\n\n\u201cKeeping 900 U.S. troops in Syria does nothing to advance American security. Rather, our intervention puts those servicemembers at grave risk by providing an enticing target for Iranian-backed militias,\u201d said Dr. Paul. \u201cOur continued presence risks the United States getting dragged into yet another regional war in the Middle East without debate or a vote by the people\u2019s representatives in Congress. Congress must cease abdicating its constitutional war powers to the executive branch.\u201d\n\nDr. Paul is expected to speak on the Senate floor at around 11:00 a.m. ET, you can watch his remarks HERE.\n\nYou can read the full text of Dr. Paul\u2019s Syria War Powers Resolution HERE.\n\nAlthough Congress never authorized the use of military force in Syria, the Biden Administration maintains 900 troops there. These troops are vulnerable to attacks by state and non-state actors as is tragically evident by recent weeks. Since Hamas\u2019 reprehensible October 7th attack on Israel, our troops in Syria and Iraq have been attacked at least 76 times. According to the Pentagon, a total of 59 U.S. military personnel were injured in these attacks. Of those injured, 32 were at al-Tanf garrison in southeastern Syria, where our soldiers suffered various injuries, including traumatic brain injuries.\n\nIn September 2014, the Obama administration initiated U.S. military operations in Syria without congressional authorization. By 2017, the Pentagon revealed that 2,000 U.S. troops were deployed to Syria. The mission outlined in Operation Inherent Resolve to degrade and destroy ISIS was achieved in 2019 when the ISIS caliphate was eradicated. Four years later, 900 U.S. troops remain in Syria, with no clear objective, no definition of victory, no exit strategy, and no authorization from Congress to engage in hostilities there.\n\nThere is wide support for Dr. Paul\u2019s Syria War Powers Resolution:\n\n\u201cWe owe our soldiers serving there in harm\u2019s way a serious debate about whether their mission is, in fact, achievable. Absent a debate and authorization of such a mission, our troops should be removed. Consideration of S.J. Res. 51 is an important opportunity for the Senate to take a step towards that necessary outcome,\u201dsaidRobert S. Ford, Former U.S. Ambassador to Syria and Political Counselor and Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Iraq.\n\n\u201cWe should only risk the well-being of our troops in conflicts overseas that our nation deemed worthy of such an enormous sacrifice. Under our Constitution, that decision should only be made by Congress. Unfortunately, none of this has happened with regards to the endless war and occupation of Syria. We are grateful that Senator Paul is once again requiring his colleagues to do their duty and cast a vote on these life and-death matters for our troops. While this is the first vote on Syria in the Senate, it is the fourth vote in Congress in just over two years, and pressure will only continue to grow until this endless war is brought to a close,\u201d said Erik Sperling, Executive Director of Pro-Diplomacy Advocacy Group at Just Foreign Policy.\n\n\u201cThe United States has been fighting the same undeclared war in Iraq and Syria for decades. This is a flagrant abuse of the Constitutional separation of powers and we wholeheartedly support Sen. Paul\u2019s effort to return us to the proper order,\u201d said Jim Hanson, Executive Director of America Matters.\n\n\u201cIt is a national disgrace that the Biden Administration has left our troops in Syria to serve as soft targets for those looking to punish the United States in service of an ill-defined mission that has no connection to our safety or national interest. Five years after the destruction of ISIS\u2019s territorial caliphate and with the Department of Defense admitting that the scattered remnants of ISIS are in \u201csurvival mode,\u201d it is past time for our troops to come home from Syria. Citizens for Renewing America is proud to support Senator Rand Paul\u2019s War Powers Resolution mandating the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria and we urge the Senate to pass this critical piece of legislation,\u201d said Wade Miller, Executive Director of Citizens for Renewing America.\n\n\u201cThe Biden Administration\u2019s deployment of nearly 900 US troops in Syria, facing 76 attacks since October 7, 2023, without specific congressional authorization or clear objectives raises concerns about constitutional checks and balances. While the President holds the role of Commander-in-Chief, Congress\u2019s authority to declare war or sanction troop placement is vital. Senator Rand Paul\u2019s Syria War Powers Resolution (S.J. Res. 51) aims to restore this balance, preventing an unchecked concentration of power in the Executive branch. Supporting the resolution is crucial for upholding constitutional principles amid complex geopolitical challenges,\u201d said George Landrith, President of Frontiers of Freedom Institute.\n\n\u201cA debate really needs to happen about \u2018why are we in Syria?\u2019 and \u2018what threat to the U.S. homeland do the groups we are fighting pose?\u2019 The U.S. has been engaged in these wars for two decades and Congress has been derelict in its duties while the executive branch has vastly expanded these wars. So Sen. Paul\u2019s War Powers Resolution is one of the few vehicles that serves to force Congress to take a vote,\u201dsaid Heather Brandon-Smith, Legislative Director for Militarism and Human Rights for the Friends Committee on National Legislation.\n\n\u201cThe Greater Middle East is a region beset with ancient ethnic rivalries and societal challenges that Washington D.C. has tried to fix, with both unlimited money and unlimited force, and have failed repeatedly, simply because it cannot be fixed top-down with big external and governmental interventions. It is also a region where at times the concepts of order and democracy are opposed to each other, and is a region of declining geo-political importance for the U.S. Whatever local threats from terrorism that remain in the region, are not existential to the U.S., compared to, say, the unsustainable trillions of dollars of American debt. Nothing warrants an American forward presence, in Syria or beyond. Washington should therefore narrow its priorities, and focus very narrowly on free shipping and trade routes and limited over-the-horizon counter-terrorism missions, as and when necessary, and otherwise leave the region to find its natural equilibrium. There are far greater future concerns, both strategic and social, elsewhere,\u201d said Dr. Sumantra Maitra, Senior Fellow at the Center for Renewing America and Senior Editor of the American Conservative.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:56:20Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.paul.senate.gov/dr-rand-paul-to-force-u-s-senate-vote-on-war-powers-resolution-concerning-u-s-troops-in-syria/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.6968909185379744, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}