Rep. Matt Gaetz (FL-01) released a statement Tuesday regarding the final vote by the House of Representatives on his resolution, H.J. Res. 79, to terminate the national emergency regarding Syria.
“Congress has consistently failed in its duty to review the national emergency in Syria for nearly two decades. The failure is not just on oversight; it’s on upholding the Constitution and exercising our power to reassert the rule of law and Congress’s rightful role in fiscal oversight and checking the executive branch,” Gaetz said Tuesday.
“The civil war happening in Syria is tragic but does not threaten our homeland and does not warrant this level of unchecked executive authority. The real emergency in Syria is our presence there, which risks war with nuclear-armed Russia,” Gaetz concluded.
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If passed, the privileged resolution would have reasserted Congress’ statutory duty and constitutional oversight role to review decades-long national emergency declarations.
Unfortunately, the resolution was not adopted by a vote of 394-24, with support from 20 Republicans and 4 Democrats.
In March, Gaetz’s bid to pull U.S. troops out of Syria was way short in the House, as many Republicans, including some from Florida, sided with Democrats to retain our presence there.
As the Tampa Free Press reported in February, Gaetz called for American troops to leave Syria after four soldiers and a service dog were wounded in a raid that killed ISIS terrorist leader Hamza al-Homsi. All of the injured troops and their canine were expected to recover.
Yet Gaetz filed a bill to have the troops pulled out within 15 days of its enactment.
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“Congress has never authorized the use of military force in Syria,” Gaetz said at the time. “The United States is currently not in a war with or against Syria, so why are we conducting dangerous military operations there? America First means actually putting the people of our country first — not the interests of the Military Industrial Complex.”
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