Directing the President pursuant to section 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution to remove United States Armed Forces from hostilities in the Syrian Arab Republic that have not been authorized by Congress.

IV 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. CON. RES. 70 Directing the President pursuant to section 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution to remove United States Armed Forces from hostilities in the Syrian Arab Republic that have not been authorized by Congress. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OCTOBER 31, 2019 Ms. GABBARD submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs CONCURRENT RESOLUTION Directing the President pursuant to section 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution to remove United States Armed Forces from hostilities in the Syrian Arab Republic that have not been authorized by Congress. Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 1 concurring), 2 SECTION 1. REMOVAL OF UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES 3 FROM HOSTILITIES IN THE SYRIAN ARAB RE- 4 PUBLIC THAT HAVE NOT BEEN AUTHORIZED 5 BY CONGRESS. 6 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 7 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:46 Oct 31, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HC70.IH HC70 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HCON 70 IH (1) Congress has the sole power to declare war 1 under article I, section 8 of the Constitution. 2 (2) Congress has not declared war with respect 3 to, or provided any specific statutory authorization 4 for, United States military participation in any ac- 5 tivity related to securing, guarding, possessing, prof- 6 iting off of, or developing oil fields in northern 7 Syria. All of these actions are unconstitutional. 8 (3) President Donald Trump stated on October 9 27, 2019 regarding Syria that ‘‘we are leaving sol- 10 diers to secure the oil. Now, we may have to fight 11 for the oil. That’s OK. Maybe somebody else wants 12 the oil, in which case they have a hell of a fight.’’ 13 And that ‘‘it can help us, because we should be able 14 to take some also. And what I intend to do, perhaps, 15 is make a deal with an ExxonMobil or one of our 16 great companies to go in there and do it properly. 17 Right now it’s not big. It’s big oil underground but 18 it’s not big oil up top.’’. 19 (4) The Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, 20 stated on October 28, 2019, regarding oil in Syria 21 that ‘‘US troops will remain positioned in this stra- 22 tegic area to deny ISIS access those vital resources. 23 And we will respond with overwhelming military 24 force against any group that threatens the safety of 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:46 Oct 31, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HC70.IH HC70 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HCON 70 IH our forces there.’’. Secretary Esper confirmed that 1 this includes denying access to the oil from Russian 2 and Syrian forces. 3 (5) Oil, natural resources, and land in Syria be- 4 long to the Syrian people, not the United States. 5 (6) Depriving the Syrian people from the eco- 6 nomic benefit of their natural resources will inhibit 7 them from rebuilding their country. It is not hu- 8 mane or in the national security interests of the 9 United States for the Syrian Arab Republic to be an 10 unstable or failed state. An unstable or failed Syrian 11 state further proliferates the presence of terrorist or- 12 ganizations like al-Qaeda and ISIS in Syria, and sig- 13 nificantly deteriorates the humanitarian condition of 14 the Syrian people. 15 (7) Section 8(c) of the War Powers Resolution 16 (50 U.S.C. 1547(c)) defines the introduction of 17 United States Armed Forces to include ‘‘the assign- 18 ment of members of such armed forces to command, 19 coordinate, participate in the movement of, or ac- 20 company the regular or irregular military forces of 21 any foreign country or government when such mili- 22 tary forces are engaged, or there exists an imminent 23 threat that such forces will become engaged, in hos- 24 tilities.’’. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:46 Oct 31, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HC70.IH HC70 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •HCON 70 IH (b) REMOVAL OF ARMED FORCES.—Pursuant to sec- 1 tion 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution (50 U.S.C. 2 1544(c)), Congress hereby directs the President to remove 3 United States Armed Forces from hostilities in the Syrian 4 Arab Republic, except United States Armed Forces en- 5 gaged in operations authorized under the Authorization 6 for Use of Military Force (Public Law 107–40; 50 U.S.C. 7 1541 note), not later than 30 days after the date of the 8 adoption of this concurrent resolution unless and until a 9 declaration of war or specific authorization for such use 10 of United States Armed Forces has been enacted into law. 11 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:46 Oct 31, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\HC70.IH HC70 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS