The Democratic majority is set to dispute the relations between President Donald Trump and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, making one of their biggest moves regarding foreign policy since they retook House.
According to The Hill, the effort comes after fury in Congress over the humanitarian disaster in war-torn Yemen, as well as the murder of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the role of the Saudi government in it.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee pushed a resolution which would obligate the President to pull out all of the United States forces backing the Saudi-led military campaign in the civil war of Yemen.
Senators, meanwhile, will soon be able to force a vote on their companion resolution.
Supporters are confident the measure can pass both chambers, daring Trump to issue the first veto of his presidency.
“Today the House Foreign Affairs Committee took us one step closer to passing the first war powers resolution out of both chambers in the history of the United States Congress,” Rep. Ro Khanna, the resolution’s chief House sponsor, said in a statement. “More than 14 million Yemenis—half the country—are on the brink of famine, and at least 85,000 children have already died from hunger and disease as a result of the war. Let’s end American complicity in the atrocities in Yemen.”
Amid the furor, the Senate voted 56-41 to approve a resolution last year to withdraw U.S. forces in or “affecting” Yemen except troops fighting al Qaeda and associated forces.
The House, controlled by Republicans at the time, blocked any Yemen war powers resolutions from coming to the floor for a vote.
The White House threatened to veto the Senate resolution, saying the “fundamental premise” of the measure was “flawed.”
Backers of the war powers resolution were given more fuel this week after CNN reported that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates bought the support of al Qaeda-linked fighters, hard-line Salafi militias and others in the civil war by giving them U.S. weapons.
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