WASHINGTON — Following a classified briefing on the Saudi’s war in Yemen from Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo – CIA Director Gina Haspel was troublingly not allowed to attend – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) today called on the Senate to pass a bipartisan joint war powers resolution to end unauthorized U.S. military involvement in Yemen. The Senate is expected to vote on the matter this afternoon.
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“The American people entrust us [Senators] with the foreign policy of the United States and decisions that need to be made about whether we commit American tax dollars or American lives in a military conflict,” said Durbin. “Will we continue to expend American taxpayer dollars, even American lives in support of the Saudi regime and their invasion in the war in Yemen? I understand the threat of Iran and I understand we have to stand up to their aggression when and where it takes place. But did we enlist in this war? Did the American people have a national debate about this war? Did we vote in the United States Senate to engage in this war? The answer is clearly no. I’ll be supporting this resolution that will come before us this afternoon.”
The joint resolution would halt U.S. military support for the Saudi-led coalition’s war in Yemen pursuant to the War Powers Resolution. In March, Durbin supported a similar bipartisan joint war powers resolution to end unauthorized U.S. military involvement in Yemen, which was the first-ever vote in the Senate to withdraw U.S. Armed Forces from an unauthorized war. Durbin has a long history of defending Congress’s constitutional role in matters of war, regardless of who was in the White House.
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