Durbin: House Syria amendment is too vague

Majority Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.), the second-ranking Senate Democratic leader, said Tuesday that House legislation authorizing President Obama to train and equip Syrian rebels is too vague.

Durbin, chairman of the Senate Defense appropriations subcommittee, said he would like to make changes to the measure drafted by House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.).

{mosads}“I’d like to suggest a few changes to that,” he said. “It’s not written as clearly as it should be. We’re talking about going into Syria at this point, which is a dog’s breakfast of violence and terrorism.”

Durbin noted there are about 1,500 different militia groups fighting against Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces, as well as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

“His bill envisions vetting them to sort out the ones we can work with and those we can’t. What an undertaking to try to turn this into a strategy that stops ISIS, number one, and doesn’t help Assad, number two,” he said. “If I could sit down with him, I’d make a number of changes. I think some of the language in there is entirely too general. I think it would be hard to base a strategy on it.”

McKeon crafted his measure to reassure Republicans and Democrats who are concerned about giving the administration too much leeway to train Syrian rebel groups that are less extreme than ISIS.

It requires Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to give notice to Congress at least 15 days before training opposition fighters and to provide an update to lawmakers every 90 days.

It would cut off Obama’s authority in mid-December and does not provide any authorization to deploy ground troops.