Hoyer Says Obama Could Strike Syria Without Congress Vote

[boston bean]

The second-ranking House Democrat said President Barack Obama has the authority to use military force against Syria without returning to the U.S. Congress for approval should diplomacy fail to compel the Syrian government to surrender its chemical weapons arsenal.

Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland said neither he nor House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, “believe the president is required to come to Congress in this instance, and could act on his own.”


Hoyer, in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt” that airs this weekend, also said House Republican disarray on strategy in battling Obama over the federal budget and raising the nation’s borrowing limit makes a government shutdown at month’s end more likely.

On Syria, Hoyer said only a brief window exists for Russia to prove that its bid to require Syria to give up its chemical arms stockpile to avert a U.S. military strike is “real” -- “certainly not longer than weeks.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-12/hoyer-says-obama-could-strike-syria-without-congress-vote.html

[bigtree]

1. weeks until war then

. . . I don't think the WH will wait that long