House blocks arms sales to Saudi Arabia; Trump veto expected

WASHINGTON — The House voted Wednesday to undo President Donald Trump’s bid to sidestep Congress and complete arms sales benefiting Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, sending three disapproval resolutions to the Oval Office, where they are expected to be vetoed.

The Trump administration announced in May that it would invoke emergency authority to push through 22 deals worth more than $8 billion, sales that include missiles, munitions and surveillance aircraft. A bipartisan majority in the House and Senate — but not a veto-proof majority — objected to the move, which would replenish part of the Saudi arsenal that lawmakers say has been used against civilians in Yemen’s long-running civil war.

But only four Republicans — Reps. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, Trey Hollingsworth of Indiana, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Alex Mooney of West Virginia, plus newly independent Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan — joined Democrats to pass the resolutions.

The Trump administration has insisted that the weapons sales are necessary to counter an increasing threat from Iran, which is suspected in recent attacks on petrochemical tankers and shot down a U.S. Navy surveillance drone.

House Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., said Wednesday that the resolutions were an “extraordinary but necessary” step to counteract an “abuse of power,” charging that the Trump administration had created “a phony emergency to override the authority of Congress” to prevent the deals.

Trump has stymied most congressional efforts to punish Saudi Arabia - including a measure this year to end U.S. support for the Saudi-led military coalition operating in Yemen. The promise of the president’s continued opposition is complicating lawmakers’ efforts to determine their next move.

The clash is playing out acutely in the GOP-led Senate, where Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman James Risch, R-Idaho, recently unveiled legislation to sanction Saudi leaders allegedly involved in Khashoggi’s killing by denying them U.S. visas - but stopped short of more aggressive steps that Democrats and some Republicans have endorsed.

“You can either have a fig leaf that gives you political cover, or you can really do something,” the committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, said in an interview.