House votes to halt aid for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen
WASHINGTON — The House voted on Wednesday to end U.S. military assistance for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, a defiant and rare move to curtail presidential war powers that underscored anger with President Donald Trump’s unflagging support for Saudi Arabia even after the killing of a Washington Post columnist, Jamal Khashoggi.
The 248-177 vote, condemning a nearly four-year conflict in Yemen that has killed thousands of civilians and inflicted a devastating famine, will pressure the Republican-controlled Senate to respond. Eighteen Republicans voted with the Democratic majority.
Congress’ upper chamber in December passed a parallel resolution, 56-41, in a striking rebuke to the president and his administration’s defense of the kingdom. But that measure died with the last Congress after the House Republican leadership blocked a vote.
Dozens of Democrats, however, softened the blow when they defected to a Republican amendment to allow intelligence sharing with Saudi Arabia to continue when “appropriate” to U.S. security interests.
Senate passage of the Yemen resolution could prompt Trump to issue the first veto of his presidency, and it would come after Republicans have registered their unhappiness over other foreign policy issues, such as the president’s plan to withdraw troops from Syria and Afghanistan and his threats to pull the United States from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
On Wednesday, a bipartisan group of senators introduced new sanctions on Moscow that would require the secretary of state to submit a determination of “whether the Russian Federation meets the criteria for designation as a state sponsor of terrorism.”
Democrats demanded Senate action.
“This is their opportunity to send a message to the Saudis that their behavior on Khashoggi and their flagrant disregard of human rights is not consistent with the American way of doing business and not in line with American values,” Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., the bill’s lead sponsor.
The White House pre-emptively threatened to block the resolution over the weekend, with administration officials arguing in a statement of administration policy that “the premise of the joint resolution is flawed” because the United States has provided only “limited support” in Yemen.
Senate aides involved in the resolution say they are optimistic it will pass, though it is unclear whether it will garner the same level of support among Republicans that it did in December.
Members of Congress expressed fresh outrage last weekend after the White House declined on Friday to meet a legally mandated deadline to report whether the administration believed Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, was personally responsible for Khashoggi’s death, as the CIA has concluded.
The White House has suggested it could be an unconstitutional encroachment on Trump’s powers as commander in chief for Congress to override his judgment and try to terminate the mission.