No vote on war sets bad precedent, Rep. Adam Schiff says

Rep. Adam Schiff, California Democrat, said Friday that lawmakers not voting on strikes against the Islamic State until 2015 sets a bad precedent for future presidents.

“I think that’s a terrible abdication of our responsibility,” he said on MSNBC. “It will also send that signal to future administrations that they can go to war without Congress and that is a dangerous precedent to set.”

Speaker John A. Boehner said earlier this week that Congress likely wouldn’t vote on a new authorization of military force to fight the Islamic State until 2015. Some lawmakers have called for a vote sooner, saying that the authorization from the early 2000s doesn’t cover current strikes.

Mr. Schiff said lawmakers never should have left Washington without a vote on the strikes and has said he hopes Mr. Boehner recalls Congress to cut its six week vacation short.

Mr. Schiff said the British Parliament is having the debate on strikes against the Islamic State that U.S. Congress members should be having now instead of campaigning in their home districts.

“The British have something to be proud of. The debate they’re having over the war, that’s exactly the debate we need to be having here at home,” he said on MSNBC.

Mr. Schiff said it’s not compatible that Mr. Boehner is suing the president for going around Congress in his executive actions while at the same time not allowing Congress to exercise an authority it does have.

“I think it’s deeply ironic for the speaker to say that the president, well actually to go to the length of suing the president saying he has too much power, too much authority. But on the issue of war, he’s going to say well the president hasn’t asked us to do anything,” he said. “It’s our responsibility, the constitution doesn’t say the president has to come to us, it says we alone have the ability to declare war.”

Mr. Schiff also said it’s “staggering” that the speaker thinks it’s acceptable to wait until the next Congress for a vote on war.