A group of House Democrats on Thursday released a statement welcoming Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) plan to bring the Yemen War Powers Resolution to the floor of the Senate for a vote next week.
The resolution would end U.S. support for the Saudi war and blockade on Yemen that, according to the UN, has killed at least 377,000 people, more than half of which were children under the age of five.
Americans can call 1-833-Stop-War to get connected to their senators and representatives and urge them to support the legislation that could bring an end to the over seven-year war. Go to 1833stopwar.com for more information and to see if your member of Congress supports the legislation.
Rep. Adam Schiff, the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, and other lawmakers urged in the statement for the Senate to “swiftly pass this legislation with a strong majority and send it to the House for quick adoption, and then to the President’s desk for his signature before the end of the 117th Congress.”
The lawmakers who joined Schiff in the statement were Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA), Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Jim McGovern (D-MA), Ted Lieu (D-CA), Debbie Dingell (D-MI), and Pramila Jayapal (D-WA).
The resolution directs the removal of US armed forces from “hostilities” in Yemen that have not been authorized by Congress. The US involvement in the war includes providing intelligence and logistics support for Saudi operations against the Houthis and the maintenance of Saudi warplanes.
Because of the nature of the U.S. role in the war, the resolution’s definition of hostilities includes the “sharing intelligence for the purpose of enabling offensive coalition strikes” and “providing logistical support for offensive coalition strikes, including by providing maintenance or transferring spare parts to coalition members flying warplanes.”
Violence has been down in Yemen this year thanks to a ceasefire that was enacted from March to October. Since the ceasefire expired, there have been no reported Saudi airstrikes in Yemen or Houthi attacks inside Saudi Arabia. But there has been increased fighting on the ground, and while the blockade has been eased since the ceasefire, it hasn’t been fully lifted.
The statement said that passing the resolution would “help prevent the resumption of Saudi airstrikes and end U.S. military support for this war.” The lawmakers said this would show “the Saudis that U.S. support is not a blank check.”
The push to pass the resolution comes as Democrats have called to fundamentally change the relationship with Saudi Arabia due to cuts in oil production OPEC+ announced in October. The statement said that passing the resolution would help “advance the Biden administration’s goal of recalibrating the U.S.-Saudi relationship to better serve our shared national interests.”
This article was originally featured at Antiwar.com and is republished with permission.
