Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and an original cosponsor of the War Powers Resolution approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today, voiced his conditions for continued U.S. engagement in Libya today at a committee business meeting.

“I support continuing a limited military role for the U.S. in Libya to protect innocent civilians. I believe the War Powers Act does apply to our Libya-related military activity and therefore Congress has an obligation to debate and offer approval or disapproval of the actions initiated by the president in coordination with NATO and the United Nations, said Senator Cardin. “The resolution passed by our committee today is an important one expressing the sense of our members in this debate. For this reason, I worked hard to ensure a finite timeline for this limited authorization, as well as advocated for a strong prohibition on the use of American ground troops. I also agree with the amendments agreed upon, which strengthen the prohibition to ground troops being deployed, increase the Administration’s consultation with Congress moving forward and clarify U.S. goals in this mission.  I now look forward to the debate in the full Senate on this critical issue.”

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