Courtney says House should return to Washington to tackle Syria, budget
Norwich — U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, told members of the local business community Friday that Congress should have a say in any further military action against Syria.
With the House of Representatives in recess, Courtney said Congress should be called back to Washington to deal with the aftermath of Thursday’s U.S. missile strike against a Syrian airfield, action prompted by the Syrian government’s chemical attack on civilians two days earlier.
“I shouldn’t be here,” Courtney said at a Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut luncheon at the Holiday Inn.
He said he supported the decision to launch the strike.
“It was a focused, limited response to a gas attack. I can support that as a way to deter future war crimes,” Courtney said. “But the real question is: What comes next?”
He said the missile strike was outside the scope of previous congressional authorizations for the use of military force and that any further action in Syria should only be undertaken if Congress authorizes it.
“There could be a lot of support for it (more military action),” Courtney said. “But saying authorizations passed in 2001 and 2002 cover these operations is ludicrous.”
Congress authorized military force against terrorists and Iraq in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
Courtney also noted that the administration sent 500 U.S. Marines into Syria last month to fight ISIS, the terrorist group.
“We should be down there (in Washington), engaged,” he said. “We need to have open, public debate about what comes next. Hopefully, this pushback on (Syrian President Bashar) Assad will create an opportunity to get Russia and Syria to the table.”
The situation in Syria isn’t the only thing demanding the House’s immediate attention.
Courtney said Speaker Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican, also should be summoning representatives back to Washington to vote on the budget for fiscal 2018.
At the end of the recess, “We’ll be four legislative days away from the government shutting down,” Courtney said.
The Trump administration’s “skinny budget,” a draft of the spending plan released last month, would have a devastating impact on eastern Connecticut, Courtney said. Preliminary budget cuts would eliminate funding for the Thames Valley Council for Community Action’s Meals on Wheels program, which provides for the delivery of food to homebound elderly; the Sea Grant research program at UConn’s Avery Point campus in Groton; and after-school programs at local public schools.
Proposed reductions in funding for the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of State and the Department of Agriculture are severe, Courtney said.
Audience members asked about cuts proposed for the National Institutes of Health and the National Endowment for the Arts, two other agencies whose funding is imperiled.
Courtney said constituents concerned about the cuts have flooded the Appropriations Committee with letters and that he was seeing signals “that this stuff is not going to fly.”
“It’s going to be a very contentious process,” he said.
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