WASHINGTON – All four Senators from Pennsylvania and New Jersey voted Thursday to give President Obama authorization to arm and train Syrian rebels to fight the Islamic State, though some expressed serious concerns about his plan and another Middle East entanglement.
Sens. Bob Casey (D., Pa.), Pat Toomey (R., Pa.), Cory Booker (D., N.J.) and Bob Menendez (D., N.J.) all backed the plan, which was approved 78-22.
Democratic and Republican House members from the Philadelphia region also supported the proposal in a vote Wednesday, providing Obama the authority to advance his plan to take on the group, often called ISIS, in part by training opposition fighters in the volatile region as the U.S. continues air strikes.
"We must go on the offense against this terrorist, so-called caliphate, that has beheaded Americans and is a serious threat both to our allies' and our own national security interests," Toomey said in a news release. "While I have deep concerns about the details of the plan to fund certain Syrian rebels, it is the only plan we have under this Commander-in-Chief to fight back against ISIS and the authorization lasts only to December 11th of this year. At that time, we will be able to evaluate the effectiveness of this plan and determine then whether to continue it."
Booker also expressed "serious concern" about how the U.S. will vet the Syrian forces who would receive arms and training, and said he joins Americans who worry about being dragged deeper into the Middle East conflict. But he supported the bill.
"We have an administration that's going out right now trying to build an international coalition, and it's very very critical that we show the international stage that we are, as a country, united to stopping this very serious threat," Booker said in an interview before the vote.
"I do not want to see in any way this country slipping back into the kind ... ill-fated as well as ill-conceived original war that we've been in for in a place like Iraq," he added, but said the bill Thursday is "very narrowly written" and "has a tremendous amount of oversight built into it."
Menendez, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called the options in the region "messy" and "complicated" but, in a floor speech before the vote, said, "there's no real alternative to building a local opposition force … unless you are talking about American boots on the ground."
"I am clear eyed about the challenges," he said, adding later, "there is risk … we must be willing to take some risk to degrade this barbaric, brutal" organization.
The authorization in the Senate was attached to plans to continue funding the government, even though many lawmakers thought a vote as critical as the one on Syria should be separate.
In the House, lawmakers from Philadelphia and its surrounding suburbs – including Democrats Chaka Fattah, Bob Brady and Allyson Schwartz and Republicans Mike Fitzpatrick, Jim Gerlach, Pat Meehan, Frank LoBiondo and Jon Runyan -- all supported the plan as part of a 273-156 vote Wednesday night.
There, too, even lawmakers supporting the plan were wary.
"The destruction of ISIS will require both a well-thought-out strategy for victory and decisive presidential leadership. In the meantime, this measure will allow the Administration to arm opposition fighters in battle with ISIS, and I will monitor this effort to ensure it is working effectively," Meehan said in a news release after the vote.
U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.) said in a release, "this amendment is not an authorization of military force, and does not put combat forces on the ground. Instead, it allows the President the flexibility to confront the threat in Syria from a humanitarian, diplomatic, political, and military vantage. I believe the President and Administration have come to this decision only after thoughtful, careful deliberation, and Congress must give them the resources they need to counter this growing threat."
Several nearby lawmakers, including U.S. Reps. Charlie Dent, an Allentown Republican, Chris Smith a Central Jersey Republican, and Frank Pallone, a Shore-area Democrat, opposed the proposal.
"Too many questions remain today that cannot be answered to my satisfaction," said a statement from Dent, whose district has the largest Syrian population of any in the House. "How will we effectively vet the opposition forces? How will we ensure that arms delivered will not be sold to ISIS forces or used against already persecuted people in the region, such as the Syrian Christians? In my opinion, the Administration has not provided reasonable answers to these key questions."
He concluded, "if we err – it should be on the side of caution."
The House vote split along unusual lines: 159 Republicans and 114 Democrats supported the president's plan, while 71 Republicans and 85 Democrats opposed it
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