the matter with senators on both sides of the aisle questioning the state department's top lawyer harold koh here's the deal cole is urging u.s. lawmakers to vote for a resolution authorizing the u.s. role in the nato led mission in libya lawmakers say under the war powers resolution president obama should have come to congress for authorization in the first place a long time ago here's one senator who used brock obama's own words during his questioning i want to give you a quote from then senator obama in december of two thousand and seven and he said quote the president does not have power under the constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation in quote i've heard a discussion of it can you give me a simple answer is that still his position question a lot of people are asking of course regarding libya lots of talk about and some more i want to bring in d.-day for shot from hartford connecticut he's the director of international studies at trinity college in hartford. hey there and there you

at yesterday's hearing of the senate foreign relations committee, state department legal adviser harold koh said that the war powers act of 1973 does not apply to u.s. involvement in libya. and that president obama did not need congressional authority for military operations there. to senators on the committee, john kerry and john mccain, have sponsored a bill to authorize the leading nation for a year. this hearing is to ours. >> the hearing will come to order. thank you very much for being here this morning. i apologize for starting a few minutes late. we're here this morning to further examine an important since it has been passed. this isn't issue since the 1970s, and certainly it has been debated over the course of the last weeks. with respect to the war powers resolution and its role in america's use of force in libya. i want to thank all of my colleagues for the very constructive manner in which we have conducted that discussion over these past weeks, and this afternoon the committee will meet again, and i would ask all the members who are here as you run into other members, if we ca

some of you were not able to be here, but the legal advisor, harold koh, said the following. because the war powers resolution represented a broad compromise between competing views on the proper division of constitutional authorities, the question of whether a particular set of facts constitutes hostilities for the purposes of the resolution has been determined more by interbranch practice than by a narrow parsing of dictionary deaf nations. both branches recognize that different situations may call for different responses. specifically he pointed to how, under president forward -- president ford, when this question came up, lee and hoffman, the folks working then on the issue said the term should not be read to include situations where the nature of the mission is limited, situations that do not involve full military engagements, with which the war powers act was principally concerned. where the exposure of u.s. forces is limited, i.e., sporadic or paramilitary attacks on our forces. and where the risk is therefore limited, and it goes on. now it is clear that for 40 years

earlier today, they heard from harold koh and others about the president's intervention in libya, military action along with the nato. president is actinllyt the in ordering intervention -- acting legally in ordering intervention. the testimony is available on anorg.bsite at c-span.o the senate itself is in to date. they are likely to debate a bill that streamlines the process for a presidential nominations. senator webb and senator casey on the democratic side as we wait for the chairman of the committee, senator john kerry. senators, members of the senate foreign relations committee, are gathering, preparing to mark up legislation involving libya. this authorization resolution, as is called, is co-sponsored by senator john kerry, the chairman of the foreign relations committee, and the ranking republican on armed services, senator john mccain. "gq" writes that has a a broad range of co-sponsors from both parties, but in the house, which voted down a pair of libya initiative last week, ambivalence is widespread. in 8 a "dear colleague" letter, senator lugar wrote that the resolution conta

harold koh will be testifying today. live coverage on c-span. >> and the war powers resolution applies to the use of armed forces in "hostilities or situations where imminent hostilities, involving hostilities, is clearly indicated by the circumstances, referring to american armed forces." but for 40 years, presidents have taken the view that this language does not include every single military operation. presidents from both parties have undertaken military operations without express authorization from congress. i will emphasize that that does not make it right. i am not suggesting that it does. it still begs the analysis each time of whether or not it fits a particular situation. certainly, panama, grenada, haiti, bosnia, plus a vote, lebanon -- the list is long where presidents have deemed it necessary to take a particular action. in some cases, those actions in design less than 60 days. in a number of them and in some of the most recent and prominent ones, they went well beyond 60 days. in fact, on one occasion, i be

. >> harold koh told the u.s. that the war powers act did not apply in libya.n it marks the legislation for a year, but barring ground forces. t >> the hearing will come to order. i apologize for starting a few minutes late. we are here this morning to further examine an issue that we have been debating since it was passed. i think this is a good kid -- a debate of decades, since the 1970's. certainly, it has been debated over the course of the last week's with respect to the war parts resolution and its role in america's use of force in libya. want to thank all my colleagues for the very constructive manner in which we conducted that discussion over these past weeks. this afternoon, the committee will meet again. i would ask all the members, as you run into all the other members, if we could begin that meeting punctually. i think there is a fair amount of business. it is obviously important business. i want to try to considered as expeditiously as possible. that is with respect to the proposed resolution regarding the limited operations in support of the nato

i would ask simply that this record of this deliberation reflect the testimony of legal advisor harold koh. i would put that in the record at this point in time so that is clear for people who study these issues and that said, is there any further debate on this amendment? yes, senator coons >> if i might, procedurally, are we at lugar two? >> no, we're at -- >> corker's withdrawn. >> he withdrew. i just thought, mr. chairman, procedurally it was important for those of us trying to follow the flow of the argument, what i took from the dialogue back and forth was that many of us agree that it is important to clarify whether or not the interpretation of hostilities being proffered is one that we september -- accept. and the lugar amendment, lugar two, strongly disagrees with that and suggests that we are currently engaged in hostilities and that as senator carden said the war powers act is triggered. i would respectfully agree that i think the best path forward is for to us assert an act. i do think after this morning's hearing that there are questions being raised about future conflicts. th