Appearing on CBS News’ Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer on Sunday, Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, discussed the fight against ISIS, the president’s request for authorization for the use of military force (AUMF), and the upcoming funding deadline for the Department of Homeland Security.
On the president’s AUMF request to address ISIS, Senator Corker said, “It is our goal to have a process that number one determines the threat to our homeland, and number two…looks at what is the president's strategy, especially in Syria. I think there is a lot of skepticism about the administration's commitment to dealing with ISIS…and that creates a lot of concern, so we are going to have the opportunity to look at that, to look at what is happening in Iraq, and then hopefully…create language that can, in fact, pass muster in both houses of Congress.”
Senator Corker said, “I think it is important for Congress to get behind an authorization that they feel is prudent. The president sent something over that is a beginning point, it is now a legislative vehicle, and we will decide how it should go forth, but this is something that is going to take a long commitment by all of those in the free world to undermine what ISIS is doing.”
Senator Corker also addressed the deadline on Feb. 27 to fund the Department of Homeland Security.
He said, “I would be the first to say when we have a department whose mission is to protect the homeland, especially in these times, we need to fund it, and hopefully Congress over the next period of time will figure out a way to go forward, but it needs to be funded. We do not need to leave our nation in a situation with the types of threats we have with an agency that is not working at full steam.”
Senate Democrats have voted three times this month to block the Senate from consideration of the Department of Homeland Security appropriations funding bill, which already has been approved by the House of Representatives. Each time, Senator Corker has voted to move to the House-passed bill.