--- title: ISIS: Bill Nelson Pushing Legislation to Let Obama Order Syria Strikes description: Bill said Tuesday that he'll introduce legislation to give President Barack Obama authority to order U.S. airstrikes against ISIS in Syria canonical: https://time.com/3259564/isis-iraq-syria-bill-nelson/ author: Dan Hirschhorn article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-02T21:56:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T07:53:06.479Z article:section: Politics og:title: ISIS: Bill Nelson Pushing Legislation to Let Obama Order Syria Strikes og:description: Bill said Tuesday that he'll introduce legislation to give President Barack Obama authority to order U.S. airstrikes against ISIS in Syria og:url: https://time.com/3259564/isis-iraq-syria-bill-nelson/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteace0b95e519a4fc/6986a1b73bc99937751a51fe/486103017.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4692 og:image:height: 2639 og:image:alt: Senate Committee Holds Hearing On Rising Sea Levels At Miami Beach City Hall og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: ISIS: Bill Nelson Pushing Legislation to Let Obama Order Syria Strikes twitter:description: Bill said Tuesday that he'll introduce legislation to give President Barack Obama authority to order U.S. airstrikes against ISIS in Syria twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteace0b95e519a4fc/6986a1b73bc99937751a51fe/486103017.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Senate Democrat Wants Bill Allowing Anti-ISIS Strikes in Syria > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Dan Hirschhorn](https://time.com/author/dan-hirschhorn/) ## Dan Hirschhorn Sep 2, 2014 9:56 PM UTC  U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) speaks as he chairs a hearing entitled, "Leading the Way: Adapting to South Florida's Changing Coastline." by the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation's Subcommittee on Science and Space at Miami Beach's City Hall on April 22, 2014 in Miami Beach, Florida. U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) speaks as he chairs a hearing entitled, "Leading the Way: Adapting to South Florida's Changing Coastline." by the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation's Subcommittee on Science and Space at Miami Beach's City Hall on April 22, 2014 in Miami Beach, Florida. Joe Raedle—Getty Images by [Dan Hirschhorn](https://time.com/author/dan-hirschhorn/) ## Dan Hirschhorn Sep 2, 2014 9:56 PM UTC A Democratic senator said Tuesday that he’ll introduce legislation to give President Barack Obama “clear authority” to order U.S. airstrikes against Islamist militants in Syria. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) said he’ll file the legislation when Congress returns from recess next week. It wasn’t immediately clear if Nelson, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, would introduce the measure as stand-alone legislation or as part of a larger defense spending bill. He previewed the legislative move the same day that the militant group Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) released [a video purportedly showing the beheading death of American journalist Steven Sotloff](http://time.com/3258167/steven-sotloff-isis-video-james-foley/)—footage that, if authenticated, would be the second such video showing the group executing an American journalist in as many weeks. “This will ensure there’s no question that the President has the legal authority he needs to use airstrikes in Syria,” Nelson said in a statement. “Let there be no doubt, we must go after ISIS right away because the U.S. is the only one that can put together a coalition to stop this group that’s intent on barbaric cruelty.” ISIS has for months been mounting attacks and capturing territory across Iraq and along the Iraq-Syria border. American airstrikes have slowed and in some cases reversed the group’s progress in Iraq, but ISIS has continued to wreak havoc in Syria. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3259564/isis-iraq-syria-bill-nelson/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3259564/isis-iraq-syria-bill-nelson/"},"headline":"Senate Democrat Wants Bill Allowing Anti-ISIS Strikes in Syria","datePublished":"2014-09-02T21:56:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T07:53:06.479Z","description":"After the apparent beheading of a second American journalist by ISIS","url":"https://time.com/3259564/isis-iraq-syria-bill-nelson/","keywords":["Foreign Policy"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteace0b95e519a4fc/6986a1b73bc99937751a51fe/486103017.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Dan Hirschhorn","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/dan-hirschhorn/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteace0b95e519a4fc/6986a1b73bc99937751a51fe/486103017.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Senate Committee Holds Hearing On Rising Sea Levels At Miami Beach City Hall","caption":"Senate Committee Holds Hearing On Rising Sea Levels At Miami Beach City Hall","creditText":"Joe Raedle—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/foreign-policy/","name":"Foreign Policy"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3259564/isis-iraq-syria-bill-nelson/","name":"Senate Democrat Wants Bill Allowing Anti-ISIS Strikes in Syria"}}]}] ```