Another reason for this reluctance is that Congress can easily end up looking indecisive. During the Kosovo conflict, then-Rep. Tom Campbell invoked both of the resolution’s expedited procedures to force his colleagues to take a stand. He introduced a measure directing the president to withdraw U.S. forces from Kosovo and another declaring war on Yugoslavia. During the debate he argued that his colleagues logically had to vote in favor of one of the two options. Two other options were eventually presented as well, including a Senate-passed measure that would have authorized continuation of the air campaign — but not a ground war — against Yugoslavia.
Both options that Campbell presented were defeated. The Senate-passed measure failed on a tie vote. A White House spokesman quipped that the House had “voted no on going forward, no on going back, and . . . tied on standing still.”
The flaw, however, was not with Campbell’s concept but with the procedures available to him to execute it. If Congress wanted to — and the House Foreign Affairs Committee is meeting this week to discuss the War Powers Resolution — it could easily construct mechanisms that would compel members to take a stand on instances such as Libya: to choose between authorizing the military operation or directing the president to end it.
Congress has never imposed such discipline on itself because in these kinds of cases some lawmakers want to keep a third option available — not just “yes” or “no” but also “maybe.” And when the time comes to make life-or-death decisions about committing U.S. forces to combat, “maybe” has often been Congress’s preferred answer. That was the real meaning of the House votes on Kosovo in 1999 and what Congress has done to date on Libya. In fact, this is why the 60-day clock was adopted — to make it easier for Congress to avoid having to say yes or no.
So long as Congress hesitates to take a stand on these kinds of military operations, the president is, by default, going to make most of the decisions. Complaints that the 60-day clock is being violated ring hollow when Congress has not done everything it can to assert itself in national decision-making on the use of force.
The writer, a principal at the Podesta Group, was an assistant secretary of state from 2002 to 2006.
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