The House of Representatives voted 268-to-161 to repeal the 19 year-old authorization used to conduct the Iraq War.  It’s a step closer to ending a measure that the last three presents have used to conduct military operations overseas without having to seek new congressional approval.

The House vote shows a growing consensus that such open-ended force measures are destructive to constitutional governance, and irrelevant to current security needs:

The 2002 authorization is generally viewed as the simplest of AUMFs to phase out. The Iraq War was formally ended years ago, and the military has not cited the permissions granted in 2002 as its sole justification for any operations in more than a decade.

That still doesn’t mean the consensus is as broad as it should be. Many members of the GOP caucus voted against repeal, preferring to simply update the 2002 authorization rather than holding an open debate and public vote on a new measure. Still there’s hope the GOP will see the light on granting presidents the power to declare endless wars:

“Three presidents, both Republicans and Democrats, have used this permission to drag out conflicts that will get us into new ones,” Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) said on the floor.

True. The repeal measure now moves on to the Senate.