Benjamin Sasse On The Record


- Ben Sasse voted NO on Amendment S.Amdt. 1298 to S.Amdt. 1116 to H.Con.Res. 71: Budget Cut Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) introduced an amendment to cut $43 billion in budget authority in fiscal 2018. Federal spending, much of which is unconstitutional, is out of control and needs to be reined in.

- Ben Sasse voted YES on S.Amdt. 871 to S.Amdt. 1003 to H.R. 2810: War Authorization The 2001 AUMF has been used by presidents ever since as a blank check not only for continued U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan, but for new military interventions elsewhere, including Libya, Syria, and Yemen — despite the fact that constitutionally authorized power to declare war belongs to Congress, not the president.

- Ben Sasse voted YES on Amendment S.Amdt. 240 to S. 722: NATO Not only should the United States stay clear of entangling alliances such as NATO, but the NATO provision that obligates the United States to go to war if any member of NATO is attacked undermines the provision in the U.S. Constitution that assigns to Congress the power to declare war. Moreover, the number of nations that the United States has pledged to defend under NATO has grown from 11 to 28 over the years, as the alliance itself has grown from 12 member nations (including the United States) when NATO was created in 1949 to 29 today.

- Ben Sasse voted NO on Motion: Blocking U.S. Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia Paul has opposed selling arms to Saudi Arabia because the regime oppresses its own people, is engaged militarily in the civil war in Yemen, and has supported ISIS. "Who in their right mind would give money, arms, or share our technology with a country that has been supporting ISIS?" Paul asked on the Senate floor. The United States should not interject itself in foreign conflicts such as the civil war in Yemen (via arms sales to one of the combatants in that conflict -- Saudi Arabia), and should not take steps tantamount to going to war without a declaration of war by Congress.

- Ben Sasse voted YES On the Resolution of Ratification Treaty Doc. 114-12: Montenegro NATO Membership The United States should stay clear of entangling alliances such as NATO but also because the NATO provision that obligates the United States to go to war if any member of NATO is attacked undermines the provision in the U.S. Constitution that assigns to Congress the power to declare war. Montenegro, which was part of communist Yugoslavia during the Cold War era, is now one of 28 countries the United States is obligated to defend under NATO.

- Ben Sasse voted YES On the Conference Report S. 2943: National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) The creation of the Orwellian “Global Engagement Center,” which was added to the NDAA without Congress being able to vote on it as a stand-alone bill, falls outside the scope of legitimate national defense. Rather than agreeing to the version of NDAA they did, our lawmakers should have rejected it and passed instead a constitutionally sound version.

- Ben Sasse voted YES On the Amendment S.Amdt. 3482 to S.Amdt. 3464 to H.R. 636: TSA The TSA is a classic example of federal overreach and should be abolished, not given additional funding. Constitutionally speaking, local law enforcement should handle shootings, not the federal government, even if the feds are working in conjunction with local law enforcement.

- Ben Sasse voted NO On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1889 to S.Amdt. 1463 to H.R. 1735 (Military Construction Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016): Torture An amendment to ensure that the entire U.S. government complies with interrogation techniques permitted by Army Field Manual 2-22.3. Specifically, any individual in the custody of any U.S. government agent or detained at any U.S. government facility shall not be subjected to any interrogation technique, such as waterboarding, not authorized by Army Field Manual 2-22.3, entitled “Human Intelligence Collector Operations.” The amendment would also require that the Red Cross be allowed access to any detained individual.

- Ben Sasse voted YES On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1549 to S.Amdt. 1463 to H.R. 1735 (Military Construction Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016): Arming Iraqi Kurds Arms sent to the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) could also fall into the hands of the rival Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a communist terrorist group dedicated to the creation of a Marxist-Leninist state of Kurdistan. The KRG is divided between the more conservative Kurdistan Democratic Party (PDK) of Iraq and the left-wing Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which is affiliated with the Socialist International.