Russ Steele
HR 1540 - National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012: NO.
I have one over-riding objection to this measure, which authorizes the Defense budget for the coming year: Section 1034 of the bill provides an unconstitutional and open-ended delegation of authority to the President to initiate hostilities with any country he alone determines is “associated” with al-Qaeda or the Taliban. The Constitution is explicit that only Congress has the authority to declare war, and the American Founders were quite clear that so monumental a decision should be reserved to the representatives of all the people and never left to a single individual.
A men!
