Where is Trump’s Missing War Powers Report? – By Scott R. Anderson (Brookings Institution) / April 8 2020
The administration is ignoring its legal requirement to explain how it would use military force, and undermining Congress in the process.
For the past month, while America’s attention has been understandably focused on the coronavirus crisis, the Trump administration has been disregarding an important new law concerning the president’s war powers. On March 1, President Trump was supposed to provide the public with a report describing any changes to the “legal and policy frameworks” governing when and where the president can use military force. More than a month later, that report still hasn’t been released—and the Trump administration hasn’t even offered an explanation as to why.
In many ways, this omission continues a troubling trend of silence around war powers issues, one that has been particularly notable since the controversial killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani earlier this year. But by openly disregarding a requirement imposed by Congress, the Trump administration is also putting into question Congress’s authority to promote transparency and accountability around uses of military force. And that is a serious enough development to warrant public attention and a public response.
The framework report in question began as a voluntary initiative of the Obama administration, which released the first 66-page report to the public just as it was preparing to leave office in December 2016. As President Obama described at the time, it was intended to support “the process of democratic decision making” by explaining “the legal basis and policy parameters” for military and related national security operations to the American public, allowing voters to more effectively take a president’s position on those issues into account at the ballot box. While Obama tried to institutionalize the practice using executive directives, the Trump administration opted not to follow suit and brought the effort to an end.
Continue to article: https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2020/04/where-trumps-missing-war-powers-report/164451/?oref=d-river
