For more than a decade, Congress has ceded war-making powers to the executive branch and abdicated its constitutional responsibility to debate and declare war when necessary. The result has been a foreign policy that is increasingly disjointed, with the nation in a state of perpetual, aimless war.

On June 29, in a surprising display of bipartisanship, the U.S. House Appropriations Committee took an important step toward regaining congressional authority over matters of war and peace, voting in favor of an amendment to a broader defense spending bill to repeal the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force provided to the president following the Sept. 11 attacks.

Introducing the amendment was Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., the lone member of Congress to vote against the 2001 AUMF, who said of her vote that "I knew then it would provide a blank check to wage war anywhere, anytime, for any length by any president." Lee has repeatedly sought repeal of the 2001 AUMF over the years, only now receiving significant bipartisan support.

Several Republicans, including veterans, made clear it was time for Congress to fulfill its constitutional duty. The amendment, which would give the Congress 240 days after approval of the appropriations bill before the AUMF would expire to debate the issue, was approved by voice vote. The vote sends the important message that Congress should not continue shirking its responsibilities.

The 2001 AUMF grants the president sweeping authorization for military force against "those nations, organizations, or persons" the president "determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001."

The resolution has since morphed into a justification for interventions around the world, with only tenuous connections to 9/ 11, from justifying military operations in Libya, Pakistan and Yemen, to fighting groups that didn't even exist in 2001 like Al-Shabab in Somalia and ISIS in Syria and Iraq.

The AUMF has even been invoked to justify the warrantless surveillance of Americans and detention of suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay.

It is time for Congress to repeal prior authorizations and if necessary pass new ones with clear targets and time limits. Without limits, America will remain in a state of perpetual war, with civil liberties threatened and human lives lost in pursuit of vague, open-ended and potentially unwinnable objectives.

FROM AN EDITORIAL IN THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER