Democratic Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy told Candy Crowley on CNN’s “State of the Union” that President Barack Obama lacks the authority to unilaterally send a planned 1,500 troops to Iraq, and that Congress should vote on the question.
MURPHY: What’s maybe more important is that tomorrow, I would argue the 60-day War Powers Act clock expires. Tomorrow is 60 days since the President announced his initial strategy. Congress has a constitutional responsibility to authorize this. I do not think the President has the ability under current authority to authorize 1,500 troops without Congress acting. So my hope is that when we get back, we’re going have a full debate on this, and I think a lot of us are going to be very reluctant to support this kind of infusion of ground troops absent some suggestion, some evidence that the Iraqis are doing what’s necessary politically to compliment this major infusion of American military resources.