Infamous Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) recently introduced a proposed joint resolution that would essentially nullify a foreign policy move from the Obama administration, and he only managed to get three cosponsors, meaning those formally backing the move as it makes its way through the House.
You could probably guess who’s going to be on this list. The three are GOP Reps. Lauren Boebert (Colo.), Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), and Matt Gaetz (Fla.), and the policy move that they and Gosar are targeting is a presidential declaration of a national emergency. Obama made that declaration concerning the situation in Libya, and it provided the basis for punitive economic measures — meaning sanctions — from the U.S. In general, past declarations by a president of an emergency must be extended on a one-year basis in eventual follow-up years, and incumbent Joe Biden provided his latest restatement of the 2011 declaration that covered the situation in Libya just recently, in February.
Republicans in this ideological corner of the party have recently introduced a series of proposals that target years worth of presidential declarations of emergency for prospective cancellation, though these planned initiatives generally have similarly limited levels of support.
Their own guy, meaning Trump, used those presidential powers as he tried to set up what was needed for the southern border wall that he wanted for so long, so it’s especially notable for the essentially MAGA wing of the Republican Party to come out swinging so vociferously against those powers. Another recent proposal to this same effect targeted a presidential declaration of emergency that originated all the way back under George W. Bush and related to political instability and violence in the southern African country the Democratic Republic of the Congo. For now, the plan from Gosar and the other Republicans has been referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
