Washington, DC — Congressman Jim Himes (CT-4) issued the following statement today after voting for the fiscal 2015 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 3979). Himes joined a bipartisan group of House members in urging Speaker John Boehner to allow the House to debate and offer amendments to the bill, a request the Speaker denied. A copy of the request can be found here.
“This bipartisan, compromise legislation includes hundreds of provisions that are vital to our country’s national defense, the well-being of our military men and women, and Connecticut’s economy. It also meets the budgetary limits that Congress agreed to on a bipartisan basis.
“Congress has an unambiguous constitutional duty to have a full and thorough debate on whether to authorize the use of U.S. military force. In Syria, we are creeping into a new war without a coherent strategic plan, a conflict that risks putting our nation on both sides of a civil war. These policies are simply too important to be folded into such a sprawling piece of must-pass legislation under a process that limits debate and prohibits amendments.”
Himes cosponsored a bipartisan amendment that sought to strip provisions authorizing a program to train and equip Syrian rebels to fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The plan would cost $500 million and train as many as 5,000 fighters over two years.
“I continue to have profound concerns about the President’s plan to arm and train the so-called ‘moderate’ Syrian rebels. The Administration has not adequately explained how the United States will vet the rebels, what kinds of weapons we will give them and how we will make sure these weapons don’t fall into the hands of terrorists,” Himes said.