CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS – DEFENSE
Updated June 22, 2011 – 4:22 p.m.

House Moves Toward Rebuke Over Libya as Senate Delays Debate

House Moves Toward Rebuke Over Libya as Senate Delays Debate

“There seem to be a lot of people who want limitations,” he said.

‘Political Football’

Obama administration officials blasted the House developments as politically motivated.

“I think, astoundingly, there is a move in the House of Representatives to take an effort as it relates to the ongoing effort to stop a tyrant in Libya and to turn it into a political football in such a way here as to give, at a critical time — potentially send a very negative signal to the leadership of that country, which, as we all know, has over the course of time carried out hateful and heinous attacks against U.S. citizens, including terrorist attacks,” a senior administration official told reporters Wednesday.

Boehner said he largely backs the Senate approach to authorize the U.S. involvement Libya while acknowledging that the House lacks the support to approve such a resolution.

“The fact is the president has not made his case to members of Congress, has not made his case to the American people,” Boehner said Wednesday. He urged Obama to present a stronger case for the U.S. role in Libya.

A senior House Republican said he doubted leaders would bring to the floor legislation that would disrupt the Libya mission.

On the Democratic side, Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich, D-Ohio, who has been one of the strongest critics of the Libya operation, sent a letter to members urging them to vote for the resolution that would limit U.S. participation.

“The second resolution will not end the war immediately, but it will prohibit the administration from expanding U.S. involvement in the war,” he wrote.

Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., said he thinks a number of lawmakers support Kucinich on this issue.

“I think people are just angry about the way they’re being treated by the administration,” he said Wednesday. “It’s an institutional issue and a constitutional issue as well as a policy issue and the president’s made it that way.”

But Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said Wednesday evening that he was concerned that House approval of any measure limiting the Libya mission would send the wrong message to Libyan leader Muammar el-Qaddafi.

“This is not going to happen. It is never going to become law,” Graham said. “I can understand why people in the House are very upset with the president. . . . But I don’t want to do anything that would give Qaddafi hope.”

House Moves Toward Rebuke Over Libya as Senate Delays Debate

Different Currents

The Senate, for its part, will likely debate a resolution authorizing U.S. military involvement in Libya after the Fourth of July recess, a Senate leadership aide said Wednesday.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is expected to mark up a resolution next week that is generally supportive of President Obama’s decision to participate in the NATO-led operations in Libya. It is sponsored by Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., and John McCain of Arizona, the top Republican on Armed Services.

With the Senate on recess the following week, floor debate and a vote on that measure and other resolutions more critical of the president’s action would take place the week of July 11 at the earliest.

The decision to punt Senate action until after the Fourth of July comes a day after senators announced they would soon take a stand on Libya.

The bipartisan Kerry-McCain measure (S Res 194) authorizes “limited use” of U.S. forces in Libya and reiterates that it is the goal of U.S. policy to force Muammar el-Qaddafi from power through the “use of diplomatic and economic pressure.” It also requires the administration to respond to a list of questions on the state of U.S. operations now and plans for the future.

Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Tuesday he supports the measure and believes it has the necessary votes to pass the Senate. The list of cosponsors for the Kerry-McCain resolution reflects a broad spectrum of senators, including Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill.; Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich.; Select Intelligence Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.; Homeland Security Chairman Joseph I. Lieberman, I-Conn., Benjamin L. Cardin, D-Md., Minority Whip Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.; Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; and Roy Blunt, R-Mo.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Wednesday he was undecided on how he would vote on the proposal, but indicated an inclination to back McCain.

“When John McCain has something to say about a defense issue, I listen very carefully,” McConnell said at a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. “He’s the only member of our conference who’s actually been in the country during this crisis and I tend to defer to him.”

McConnell also suggested that some Republicans may be more vocal in their opposition to the Libya operation because it was undertaken by a Democratic president.

“I’m not sure that these kinds of differences might not have been there in a more latent form when you had a Republican president, but I do think there is more of a tendency to pull together when the guy in the White House is on your side,” McConnell said. “Some of these views were probably held by some of my members in the previous administration but party loyalty tended to kind of mute them. A lot of our members, not having a Republican in the White House, feel more free to express their reservations.”

McConnell also noted the wide range of opinions on the Libya operations among Senate Republicans, noting that some Republicans are opposed on constitutional grounds and others on budgetary grounds. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and others are likely to seek votes on measures challenging the president’s authority to commit the U.S. military to Libya.

“There’s pretty broad agreement now that the Senate needs to have a debate on Libya,” McConnell said. “The Senate is going to have a debate and is going to vote on something, and presumably that would relate to getting some kind of presidential approval of some sort.”

House Moves Toward Rebuke Over Libya as Senate Delays Debate

Emily Cadei contributed to this story.