Follow us on social

Meijer

Republican Rep. Meijer calls AUMF repeal 'Constitutional hygiene'

The Michigan freshman and combat veteran says it's time for Congress to step up and take care of this 'low hanging fruit.'

Analysis | Asia-Pacific

Freshman Rep. Peter Meijer, a Republican from Michigan whose independence on Trump and war issues has made headlines in his first two months in office, confirmed his support for repealing the 2002 Authorization for the Use of Military Force, saying it came down to two words.

“Constitutional hygiene.”

“There is nothing really that complex here,” he told a virtual audience on Thursday. He said there is no substantive argument for keeping the measure, which was put into place to invade Iraq and remove Saddam Hussein from office nearly 20 years ago. Meijer, a combat veteran and former Afghanistan-based NGO, left Iraq with the last big wave of forces in 2011. The idea that Washington’s hands would be tied without it is ridiculous, he said. There are other authorities, like Article II, he said, if the administration wanted to justify action. While that is up to another debate, he said, “if we repealed it (2002 AUMF) eight years ago it wouldn't have precluded any activity that we have engaged in since.”

Meijer was one of only two Republicans (the other, Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado) to help pass Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee’s repeal of the 2002 AUMF out of the House Foreign Affairs Committee last month. He has also introduced his own legislation to repeal not only the 2002 AUMF, but the still-open 1991 and 1957 AUMFs as well. 

He told Thursday’s webinar, hosted by Andrew Lautz of the National Taxpayers Union and Jonathan Bydlak of R Street, that this is all part of Congress taking back its Constitutional oversight authorities, a goal he had front and center when he ran for office. 

“I definitely went into my Iraq deployment in 2010 with a sense of optimism, but left with a strong sense of pessimism,” he said. The failures of Iraq were a symptom of a much larger system failure in all of our post-9/11 conflicts, he said, in that they reflected the waning oversight and growing disconnect between the Executive and the people. “We need people in office who understand the severity, who understand the consequences” of “what the government does or doesn’t do” and be prepared to act on it by asserting their proper Constitutional authority.

On the 2001 AUMF, which was enacted to fight Al-Qaida and its supporters after the 9/11 attacks, Meijer has a slightly different view. He believes while it has been stretched too far, to cover “operations in 17 to 18 different countries,” it will need to be reformed or replaced with something else (this is a point of great debate with folks lining up on the repeal/replace or repeal/don’t replace lines).

“I am not in support of outright repeal of 2001,” he said. Reform, he added, would narrow targets and geography, and set time limits for authorities. 

The 2002 AUMF should be an easier affair in terms of action in Congress, he said, but it’s “frustrating” that even if Lee’s bill passes the House, it may not see the light of day in the super-divided Senate. “For things that should be low-hanging fruit, folks dig in their heels for not very good reasons. I guess at the end of the day some members of Congress will do whatever they can to avoid a hard decision.”


Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Mich.) during an R Street Zoom webinar Thursday. (Screengrab)
Analysis | Asia-Pacific
Kim Jong Un
Top photo credit: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits the construction site of the Ragwon County Offshore Farm, North Korea July 13, 2025. KCNA via REUTERS

Kim Jong Un is nuking up and playing hard to get

Asia-Pacific

President Donald Trump’s second term has so far been a series of “shock and awe” campaigns both at home and abroad. But so far has left North Korea untouched even as it arms for the future.

The president dramatically broke with precedent during his first term, holding two summits as well as a brief meeting at the Demilitarized Zone with the North’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un. Unfortunately, engagement crashed and burned in Hanoi. The DPRK then pulled back, essentially severing contact with both the U.S. and South Korea.

keep readingShow less
Why new CENTCOM chief Brad Cooper is as wrong as the old one
Top photo credit: U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Brad Cooper speaks to guests at the IISS Manama Dialogue in Manama, Bahrain, November 17, 2023. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed

Why new CENTCOM chief Brad Cooper is as wrong as the old one

Middle East

If accounts of President Donald Trump’s decision to strike Iranian nuclear facilities this past month are to be believed, the president’s initial impulse to stay out of the Israel-Iran conflict failed to survive the prodding of hawkish advisers, chiefly U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) chief Michael Kurilla.

With Kurilla, an Iran hawk and staunch ally of both the Israeli government and erstwhile national security adviser Mike Waltz, set to leave office this summer, advocates of a more restrained foreign policy may understandably feel like they are out of the woods.

keep readingShow less
Putin Trump
Top photo credit: Vladimir Putin (Office of the President of the Russian Federation) and Donald Trump (US Southern Command photo)

How Trump's 50-day deadline threat against Putin will backfire

Europe

In the first six months of his second term, President Donald Trump has demonstrated his love for three things: deals, tariffs, and ultimatums.

He got to combine these passions during his Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Monday. Only moments after the two leaders announced a new plan to get military aid to Ukraine, Trump issued an ominous 50-day deadline for Russian President Vladimir Putin to agree to a ceasefire. “We're going to be doing secondary tariffs if we don't have a deal within 50 days,” Trump told the assembled reporters.

keep readingShow less

LATEST

QIOSK

Newsletter

Subscribe now to our weekly round-up and don't miss a beat with your favorite RS contributors and reporters, as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news promoting a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy.