As Campaign to End US-Saudi War on
Yemen Grows, Republicans Derail it with Bizarre Wolves Bill
November 16, 2018
A House bill that would end the
catastrophic US-Saudi war on Yemen is gaining support, but Republicans
bizarrely blocked a vote using unrelated legislation on gray wolves and the
endangered species list
Story Transcript
BEN NORTON: The campaign is growing to end U.S. support for the
Saudi war on Yemen, which has unleashed the largest humanitarian catastrophe on
the planet and pushed millions to the brink of famine. But Republican members
of Congress have resorted to bizarre tactics to try to maintain U.S. support
for this devastating war and derail any attempts to stop it. A Yemeni child
dies every 10 minutes on average due to the crisis caused by the war, and
specifically due to Saudi Arabia using famine as a weapon–intentionally
destroying food production and preventing imports into the poorest country in
the Middle East.
The U.S. government has played the
key role in helping Saudi Arabia carry out this war, providing substantial
military, economic, and political assistance. In response, some lawmakers in
Congress have been taking action to try to force the U.S. military to withdraw
its support, which would effectively end the war. In the House of
Representatives, Congressman Ro Khanna, a progressive Democrat from California,
has been building support for a bill that cites the 1973 law the War Powers
Resolution, which puts a check on the power of the president and gives Congress
the authority to vote for or against a U.S. war. This bill has some bipartisan
support, although it is mostly backed by progressive Democrats, and Republicans
have been taking steps to try to undermine this legislation.
On Wednesday, November 14, House
Republicans employed one of the strangest tactics imaginable. They used a
totally unrelated bill involving wolves and the endangered species list in
order to block a vote on the Yemen bill. Republicans have been trying to pass
the Manage Our Wolves Act; legislation that would remove the gray wolf from the
list of threatened or endangered species and end the U.S. government federal
protection for gray wolves, allowing Americans to hunt and kill the animal.
So Republicans in the House
introduced a one line rule change into the Manage Our Wolves Act that is about
a totally unrelated bill, the Yemen War Bill. This line removed the privilege
that the Yemen War Bill had, which means House Republicans could prevent a vote
on the Yemen Bill. And that is exactly what they did.
Before the vote, Wisconsin
Representative Mark Pocan, the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive
Caucus, condemned this strange Republican strategy to block the vote, and
called on Congress to exercise its constitutional responsibility over war.
MARK POCAN: Congress’s sole responsibility over offensive use of
force is outlined in Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution. Congress shall
have power to declare war. Yet today, House Republicans are attempting to avoid
their responsibilities by sneaking unrelated language into this rule, which
will prohibit consideration of a War Powers Resolution pertaining to the
U.S.-Saudi war in Yemen. To be clear, they took a bill about removing gray
wolves from the endangered species list in North America and included a
provision prohibiting even just the discussion of war in Yemen.
