mr. anders. >> thank you.we would like to appreciate and no decision by government is graver or consequential than decision to go to war. over the many years since congress passed in 2002 or 2001aclu has dedicated ourselves for defending civil liberties and have been jeopardized by claims of the 2001aumf legal authority or more chilling by presidential claims of article 2 authorities in complete absence of any advanced congressional authorization, these have included the drone killing of american citizens, the kid napping and torture of suspects and without charge or trial even of american citizen apprehended in the united states. it would be impossible for congress to undoe damage of 17 years of presidential overreach. we propose 3-step process for congress to reclaim constitutional authority to decide whether the united states should be at war. for now, in my oral testimony i will focus on most pressing first step, dr. paul to apply to congress first principle of medical care to do no harm, sj rest 59, the c

mr. anders. earlier this year, as you are probably aware, members of congress received a letter from the department, relying on a 1975 argument suggesting that the only time congress has an indispensable role and authorizing u.s. forces to be deployed is when deployed units of u.s. forces are on the ground engaged in a connecticut exchange. do you agree with that? if not, why? >> no, we don't agree with that. first of all, it is the role of congress to provide -- it is their exclusive authority to advanceauthorization in before a military engagement in the absence of a need to repel a sudden attack, and that's the constitutional standard. >> it's often not how we fight wars today anyway. there's lots of kind of warfare that we engage in today that doesn't necessarily involve a connecticut exchange between people on the ground. >> that's right. i think that, you know, this again is something that began during the obama administration, whatdefinition of hostility's mean under the war and with the p

michael mccambridge, alockbox ander bender, jonathan slyfe for the remainder of their session in july. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. murkowski: thank you, mr. president. i am most pleased to be here today to manage consideration of this appropriations bill package. this includes the fiscal year 2019 bills for the subcommittee on interior, environment, and related agencies, financial services, and general government, agriculture, rural development, food and drug administration, and related agencies as well as transportation, housing, and urban development and related agencies. to distill it down, this evening we're taking up interior, financial services, ag, and t-hud or transportation, housing and development. so the opportunity to move forward with a package of appropriations bills, all of which have moved through our committee with strong support, is a good place to be. i have long believed that a return to regular order, where we vote these appropriations bills out of committee with bipartisan support and then bring them, like we are doing this evening, to the floor, this is important for our process. i think all members of the senate s