Official blog of Wade Brown's 2012 campaign for Congress.

Friday, May 25, 2012

On HR 1540 - the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)



Mike Conaway voted for the NDAA; I would have voted against it.

This is Sec 1034 of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012, House Resolution 1540 as Engrossed in the House (EH).

Since its passage, this section (under a different number on the final bill) of the NDAA has been rightfully struck down by the courts.

SEC. 1034. AFFIRMATION OF ARMED CONFLICT WITH AL-QAEDA, THE TALIBAN, AND ASSOCIATED FORCES.

    Congress affirms that--
      (1) the United States is engaged in an armed conflict with al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated forces and that those entities continue to pose a threat to the United States and its citizens, both domestically and abroad;
      (2) the President has the authority to use all necessary and appropriate force during the current armed conflict with al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated forces pursuant to the Authorization for Use of Military Force (Public Law 107-40; 50 U.S.C. 1541 note);
      (3) the current armed conflict includes nations, organization, and persons who--
      (A) are part of, or are substantially supporting, al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners; or
      (B) have engaged in hostilities or have directly supported hostilities in aid of a nation, organization, or person described in subparagraph (A); and
      (4) the President's authority pursuant to the Authorization for Use of Military Force (Public Law 107-40; 50 U.S.C. 1541 note) includes the authority to detain belligerents, including persons described in paragraph (3), until the termination of hostilities.
Congressman Conaway voted for the version of the bill that included this text.  As a Constitutional conservative, I could never have voted for any bill that included ceding to the President the overly broad authorities of the AUMF, either in its original version or in the context of this bill.

The AUMF included the following in Section 2:  

"That the President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those 
nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, 
committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 
2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any 
future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such 
nations, organizations or persons."

The AUMF was an abdication of responsibility on the part of the Congress; any bill that leaves  the use of force against "persons [the President] determine[s]" has attempted to provide to the Executive un-Constitutional authorities.  The NDAA extends this beyond the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001 and would have it go to "the end of hostilities."

No Constitutional conservative could ever vote to approve a measure like this and I could not    vote for a Representative who would partake in giving to any President - and certainly not         President Obama - these authorities.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thanks for your comment. The Wade Brown 2012 blog is currently moderated to screen out spam and vulgar content.