The White House move to send 450 more U.S. service members to Iraq comes despite any clear authorization of military force from Congress on the 11-month-old Mideast fight.
But a pair of senators is are hoping the new deployments will jump start that discussion, which has largely stalled since President Obama sent draft authorization language to Capitol Hill in February.
Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., on Tuesday tried to insert a new force authorization into separate State Department legislation in an effort to jump start debate on the issue.
The measure was blocked, but Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., promised continued discussion on the proposal, which both Kaine and Flake hailed as important steps forward.
"This is the time, this is the right starting place," said Flake, who said he sees strong bipartisan interest in finding a compromise despite the lack of progress in Congress thus far.
The Senate committee held several hearings on the president's authorization proposal this spring, but the issue was largely overshadowed and sidelined by the Iranian nuclear negotiations.
Corker has said repeatedly that lawmakers need to act on the issue, but also noted a lack of support from either party for the president's proposed language.
At issue are limits on "ground troops" in the region to battle Islamic State fighters, definitions of related terror groups that could be targeted by U.S. forces, and moves to repeal earlier force authorizations used by the White House as legal justifications for military deployments overseas.
The new proposal by Kaine and Flake works to reach a middle ground on those issues, but Kaine said more important than the specifics they've outlined is getting debate on the issue started again.
He blasted colleagues for not taking a more aggressive role in reaching oversight compromise, saying it sends a conflicted message to troops and allies.
"This is not going away anytime soon," Kaine said, noting the total number of U.S. troops in the region will now top 3,500. "It's not going to be short. It's not going to be easy."
Leo covers Congress, Veterans Affairs and the White House for Military Times. He has covered Washington, D.C. since 2004, focusing on military personnel and veterans policies. His work has earned numerous honors, including a 2009 Polk award, a 2010 National Headliner Award, the IAVA Leadership in Journalism award and the VFW News Media award.
