(06.05.) The 2001 AUMF is now 12 years old. It was designed for a different threat in a different context. Doesn’t it make sense to update the AUMF to match today’s threat environment?

Congress has never passed a new AUMF without a request from the President to do so. So far, the President has not made any such request, and in 2011 the White House strongly objected to a new AUMF proposal on grounds that it would re-characterize the scope of the armed conflict and confuse standards governing counterterrorism operations. Congress should only “update” the AUMF if it truly intends to take the nation to war against any groups that the new AUMF would cover. Many so-called “emerging” terrorist threats—such as Boko Haram in Nigeria—have primarily local or regional ambitions and do not pose the same level of threat to the United States that al Qaeda did after the 9/11 attacks.