The House is set to vote on an amendment that would repeal two laws authorizing the use of military force (AUMF) in Iraq after three members of the House Freedom Caucus broke with Republican leaders in the House Rules Committee on Tuesday.
The move came as the House Rules Committee, which sets the terms of debate for major legislation on the House floor, decided which votes would be in order for the National Defense Authorization Act for 2026.
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) voted in favor of a motion from Rep. Jim McGovern (Conn.) — the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee — to allow a vote on an amendment repealing the AUMFs from 2002 and 1991.
While Republicans routinely vote down Democratic amendments in the Rules committee, this amendment was made in order in a 7-4 vote, with all other Republicans voting against and all Democrats voting in favor.
The move amounts to a rare rebellion on the Rules Committee, an organ of GOP leadership whose GOP members are all appointed by the Speaker — but which for the past few years has had enough hardline rebels on the panel to subvert GOP leadership due to a concession from former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as he scrambled to be elected Speaker.
Norman said that GOP leadership was likely unaware that the vote would be coming, and that the three rebels would support it.
“Typically, you don’t have the Democrats and the Republicans on the same level of agreement,” Norman said, adding that he was not sure if he would vote for the amendment on the House floor.
Roy, who has cosponsored a bill with House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) to repeal the AUMFs, said there should be a new AUMF to replace the old ones to allow the U.S. to adequately combat terrorists in the region.
“The AUMF repeal is strongly opposed by the, I’ll call it, defense hawk community,” Roy said. “Maybe, just crazy talk here, 23 years after the AUMF was passed in ‘02 to deal with Iraq and Saddam Hussein and that guy’s been dead …. and we’re now still running under an ‘02 AUMF. That’s insane. We should repeal that.”
One of those opposing the AUMF repeals is Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), who posted on social media that it “would tie the President’s hands in going after Iranian puppet militias in Iraq, endangering American families,” noting it is “the same provision that President Trump used for the authority to kill terrorist leader Qassem Soleimani.”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said there will be a “healthy discussion” about the AUMF repeal on the House floor.
“AUMFs always have been heated discussions, and we’ve had them a number of times in the past. I think it’s a healthy discussion to have about the difficult decision on when to engage and what are the rules of engagement,” Scalise said. “I’m sure we’re going to have a heated debate on the floor.”
A bill to repeal the 2002 AUMF passed the House in 2021, and a bill to repeal both the 2002 and 1991 authorizations passed the Senate in 2023.
