IV 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. CON. RES. 70 

Directing the President pursuant to section 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution 

to remove United States Armed Forces from hostilities in the Syrian 

Arab Republic that have not been authorized by Congress. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

OCTOBER 31, 2019 

Ms. GABBARD submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was 

referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 

Directing the President pursuant to section 5(c) of the War 

Powers Resolution to remove United States Armed 

Forces from hostilities in the Syrian Arab Republic that 

have not been authorized by Congress. 

1 Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 

2 concurring), 

3 SECTION 1. REMOVAL OF UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES 

4 FROM HOSTILITIES IN THE SYRIAN ARAB RE5 PUBLIC THAT HAVE NOT BEEN AUTHORIZED 

6 BY CONGRESS. 

7 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 


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1 (1) Congress has the sole power to declare war 

2 under article I, section 8 of the Constitution. 

3 (2) Congress has not declared war with respect 

4 to, or provided any specific statutory authorization 

5 for, United States military participation in any ac6 tivity related to securing, guarding, possessing, prof7 iting off of, or developing oil fields in northern 

8 Syria. All of these actions are unconstitutional. 

9 (3) President Donald Trump stated on October 

10 27, 2019 regarding Syria that ‘‘we are leaving sol11 diers to secure the oil. Now, we may have to fight 

12 for the oil. That’s OK. Maybe somebody else wants 

13 the oil, in which case they have a hell of a fight.’’ 

14 And that ‘‘it can help us, because we should be able 

15 to take some also. And what I intend to do, perhaps, 

16 is make a deal with an ExxonMobil or one of our 

17 great companies to go in there and do it properly. 

18 Right now it’s not big. It’s big oil underground but 

19 it’s not big oil up top.’’. 

20 (4) The Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, 

21 stated on October 28, 2019, regarding oil in Syria 

22 that ‘‘US troops will remain positioned in this stra23 tegic area to deny ISIS access those vital resources. 

24 And we will respond with overwhelming military 

25 force against any group that threatens the safety of 


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1 our forces there.’’. Secretary Esper confirmed that 

2 this includes denying access to the oil from Russian 

3 and Syrian forces. 

4 (5) Oil, natural resources, and land in Syria be5 long to the Syrian people, not the United States. 

6 (6) Depriving the Syrian people from the eco7 nomic benefit of their natural resources will inhibit 

8 them from rebuilding their country. It is not hu9 mane or in the national security interests of the 

10 United States for the Syrian Arab Republic to be an 

11 unstable or failed state. An unstable or failed Syrian 

12 state further proliferates the presence of terrorist or13 ganizations like al-Qaeda and ISIS in Syria, and sig14 nificantly deteriorates the humanitarian condition of 

15 the Syrian people. 

16 (7) Section 8(c) of the War Powers Resolution 

17 (50 U.S.C. 1547(c)) defines the introduction of 

18 United States Armed Forces to include ‘‘the assign19 ment of members of such armed forces to command, 

20 coordinate, participate in the movement of, or ac21 company the regular or irregular military forces of 

22 any foreign country or government when such mili23 tary forces are engaged, or there exists an imminent 

24 threat that such forces will become engaged, in hos25 tilities.’’. 


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1 (b) REMOVAL OF ARMED FORCES.—Pursuant to sec2 tion 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution (50 U.S.C. 

3 1544(c)), Congress hereby directs the President to remove 

4 United States Armed Forces from hostilities in the Syrian 

5 Arab Republic, except United States Armed Forces en6 gaged in operations authorized under the Authorization 

7 for Use of Military Force (Public Law 107–40; 50 U.S.C. 

8 1541 note), not later than 30 days after the date of the 

9 adoption of this concurrent resolution unless and until a 

10 declaration of war or specific authorization for such use 

11 of United States Armed Forces has been enacted into law. 

Æ 


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