Power & Market

Senate to Vote on Continuing US Support for Saudi's War on Yemen

Senate to Vote on Continuing US Support for Saudi's War on Yemen

Updated: The Vote Failed 55-44

A bipartisan group of senators (Mike Lee, Bernie Sanders, and Chris Murphy) are forcing a vote on the US involvement in the Yemen conflict with a vote expected sometime today. The timing of the vote coincides with a visit by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, whose country has waged war again Yemen since 2015. The Trump Administration, which has a pricey love affair with Saudi Arabia, is working to kill the effort. 

The resolution, if successful, would require the US military to cease all support for militarily not targeting al-Qaeda or “associated forces.” While this qualification likely means the US will not stop intervening in the country, it is an attempt for the Senate to clearly recognize that Yemeni forces are not subject to any of the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) vote that Congress have passed since 2001.

While this specific vote is being brought up under the War Powers Act, it is worth mentioning that the necessity of this vote is more an indictment on that legislation than anything else. Without its authorization during the Vietnam War, the ability for the US military to get involved in conflicts like Yemen without first receiving the explicit support of the legislature would be far more limited.

As Tom Woods has noted:

Until the War Powers Resolution, no constitutional or statutory authority could be cited on behalf of such behavior on the part of the president. Now it became fixed law, despite violating the letter and the spirit of the Constitution.

It so happens, moreover, that thanks to a loophole in the resolution, the 60-day clock begins only if and when the president reports to Congress under Section 4(a)(1) of the Resolution. Surprise, surprise: presidents have therefore reported to Congress in a more generic manner rather than expressly under that section. They issue reports "consistent with" rather than "pursuant to" the Resolution.

Even still, in a few cases presidents have acted as if the 60-day limit were in effect, perhaps out of political considerations (even if from a strictly legal point of view it was not). But Bill Clinton’s multi-year military intervention in Bosnia alone, without even so much as a nod in the direction of Congress, made perfectly clear that the resolution, whatever good points may be buried within it, was effectively a dead letter.

The Resolution calls for "consultation" by the President with Congress before committing troops to combat. This consultation, we are told, is to occur "in every possible instance." (Who could possibly find a loophole there?) In practice, presidents have interpreted this provision to mean that they must notify Congress following the initiation of hostilities — not exactly what its drafters probably had in mind.

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