As the U.S. Senate prepared Wednesday to vote on a resolution to cut military support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen, House Republicans in their last days in power moved to undermine efforts to end U.S. complicity in the assault that’s dragged on for more than three years in the impoverished country.
The House Rules Committee advanced the Farm Bill to a floor debate Tuesday evening, with progressives celebrating the absence of work requirements for low-income families who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)—but hidden in the annual agricultural bill was a provision keeping lawmakers from forcing a vote on any legislation invoking War Powers resolutions for the rest of the year.
“This is why people hate Congress,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who introduced the Yemen resolution, said in response to the move. “Speaker Ryan is not allowing a vote on my resolution to stop the war in Yemen because many Republicans will vote with us and he will lose the vote. He is disgracing Article 1 of the Constitution, and as a result, more Yemeni children will die.”
While the Senate is widely expected to pass a proposal invoking the 1973 War Powers Resolution on Wednesday, allowing Congress to end U.S. support for the war, the GOP’s maneuver in the House stymied the plan to ensure that Khanna’s proposal would pass.
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