Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) made a motion to discharge the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from further consideration of Senate Joint Resolution 51, which would direct the president to remove U.S. armed forces “from hostilities in or affecting Syria … unless and until a declaration of war or specific authorization for such use of United States Armed Forces has been enacted.”
The Senate rejected Paul’s motion on December 7, 2023 by a vote of 13 to 84 (Roll Call 333). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because under the U.S. Constitution, the power to declare war belongs to Congress, and the United States should follow a policy of noninterventionism, minding its own business in foreign affairs.
