While the nation was in crisis, the AUMF passed the Senate, 98 to 0, and the House 420 to 1. The initial purpose was to enable the administration to pursue the attackers in Afghanistan.

Now in the year 2013, some members of Congress in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, both Republicans and Democrats, want to reconsider the law that granted unprecedented war-making powers to the president and a diminished role for the Congress.