Pursuant to Section 601(b) of the International Security Assistance and Arms Export Control Act, and as provided under the order of October 7, 2025, I move to discharge the Committee on Foreign Relations from further consideration of S.J. Res. 83, to direct the removal of the United States Armed Forces from hostilities that have not been authorized by Congress, and I ask for the yeas and nays. Mr. WELCH. Mr. President, I strongly support this resolution and commend my colleagues from California and Virginia for their leadership. In the space of just 4 weeks, the Department of Defense has destroyed four small boats in the Caribbean Sea, in each instance killing everyone on board. Without producing any evidence, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, and President Trump have justified these assassinations of civilians on the grounds that the occupants were ``narco-terrorists'' and ``enemy combatants.'' There is not a single Member of Congress who does not abhor the crime of drug trafficking and the horrific toll that illegal drugs, as well as prescription opioids, are taking in this country. Every State is affected. The insatiable demand for cocaine, fentanyl, and other dangerous drugs has ravaged whole communities and caused the addiction and deaths of millions of Americans. There is no question that we are not doing enough to deal with this problem, either here at home or in the source countries. Yet the President's fiscal year 2026 budget would cut hundreds of millions of dollars for drug treatment programs, despite Americans' unmet demand for treatment, and for grants to support State and local law enforcement. It is a glaring disconnect between rhetoric and action. If Congress approves these cuts, we will be complicit with the White House in making this problem worse. Rather than increasing resources for treatment, local law enforcement, and drug courts, which have long been proven to be the best antidotes against drug addiction and the violent crime associated with it, this administration has labeled drug traffickers as ``foreign terrorist organizations'' and deployed U.S. warships and other military assets to combat them. There is no question that drug traffickers, criminal gangs, and other criminal enterprises engage in horrific and violent acts. Murder is murder, whether committed by a human trafficker, a drug trafficker, or a member of al Qaeda. But there are fundamental differences in their motivation, which legally distinguishes a drug trafficker from a terrorist. It is common knowledge that a drug trafficker's purpose is financial enrichment, while the definition of a ``terrorist'' is a person who uses violence or the threat of violence to instill widespread fear to achieve a political or ideological goal.'' Meanwhile, other governments are using the label ``terrorist'' to defame and criminalize social activists, political opponents, and journalists who engage in peaceful dissent. This is common practice in Iran, Russia, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, where dissidents are imprisoned and even executed for being so-called ``terrorists.'' Neither the White House, nor the Department of Defense, nor the Department of Justice have publicly provided legal justification for these summary executions of alleged drug traffickers in international waters. They have produced no evidence that the unidentified people in those boats were in fact trafficking drugs and no evidence that they met the definition of ``terrorist.'' Extrajudicial killing is a crime in this country and a violation of international law. Simply calling someone a terrorist does not change that. Our collective interest is in stopping drug trafficking, drug addiction, and the violence associated with it. But above all, we are a nation of laws, and the administration is flagrantly violating the law in ways that threaten all Americans. If the President can label anyone a terrorist regardless of the well-established legal definition, without saying who they are or producing any evidence, and then conducting a military strike on them, where do we draw the line? Is a drug trafficker in Miami or St. Louis a terrorist? Is a bank robber a terrorist? Are kidnappers terrorists? Is the administration going to start calling Americans who protest the arrests of migrants who are legally in this country terrorists? When asked for an explanation, administration officials routinely ignore the question, insisting that narco-terrorists are legitimate targets. But that is not what the law says. And as Attorney General Bondi often says, no one is above the law. That includes the Department of Defense and the Department of Justice. Drug traffickers should be arrested, convicted, and punished. Terrorists should be brought to justice. But no American President, Secretary of Defense, or Attorney General has the legal authority to condone or carry out extrajudicial killings when we are not at war, which only Congress can declare, and the country is not facing an imminent attack. Vote on Motion