Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Repealing The Iraq AUMF

Washington, D.C. –  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on a bipartisan agreement to move forward on repealing the Iraq AUMF. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

I want to offer a brief but heartfelt thanks to Chairman Menendez and Ranking Member Risch, as well as Senators Kaine and Young, who have worked so diligently for this proposal for so long, for reaching an agreement to mark up next week a measure that many of us have waited for: a repeal of the Iraq AUMF.

I’m glad that this effort has been for the most part bipartisan and bicameral. It was bipartisan and bicameral under full Republican control of government, under full Democratic control of government, and it is now every bit bipartisan under divided government. Staying bipartisan. There's support on both sides of the aisle for this proposal.

Because both Democrats and Republicans have come to the same conclusion: we need to put the Iraq war squarely behind us once and for all. And doing that means we should extinguish the legal authority that initiated the war to begin with.

So thank you. Thank you Chairman Menendez. Thank you Ranking Member Risch for moving forward in this repeal in your committee. And again kudos, accolades to Senators Kaine and Young for their great work too. We haven't yet passed this but their work gives us a real chance to see some light finally at the end of this long tunnel. It is my hope we can bring this to the floor during this work period.

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