Block Yemen bill

GOP maneuver will block Yemen bill from getting Senate vote

By ANDREW DESIDERIO

A House-passed bill to halt U.S. involvement in Yemen’s deadly civil war will not get a vote in the Senate, a setback to Democrats and Republicans who sought to cut off U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.

The Senate parliamentarian ruled that an amendment to the House-passed bill which contains language condemning anti-Semitism was not “germane” to the Yemen War Powers resolution — a decision that allows Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to block a vote on the measure. The legislation initially had “privileged” status, giving supporters an end run around McConnell, who has long opposed the effort.

“It’s no surprise that the Republican leadership in the Senate would try to use any means to thwart the will of the Congress and thwart the will of the people. It’s just disgraceful,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) said in an interview. “I’ve been around this place for 30 years. When there’s a will, there’s a way. If you want to pass something, you do it. And if you don’t want to do it, you find every excuse under the sun to say why you can’t do it.”

House Republicans added the anti-Semitism amendment at the last minute before the resolution was set to pass the House. That amendment passed earlier in February with 424 votes in the wake of comments by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) that were roundly condemned by lawmakers from both parties as anti-Semitic.

The final bill passed 248 to 177, with a handful of conservative Republicans — including allies of President Donald Trump — joining all Democrats in support.

Despite the parliamentarian’s ruling, senators still plan to force a vote on a clean version of the Yemen War Powers resolution, one authored by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah).

A spokesman for Lee, the chief Republican sponsor of the Senate effort, said “the loss of privileged status was communicated to our office.” A spokeswoman for Murphy said the senator still plans to force a vote on the Sanders-Murphy-Lee bill, which will have privileged status on its own, therefore guaranteeing a full floor vote.

Republican leaders have whipped strongly against the resolution, and Trump has threatened to veto it.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who led the House effort, acknowledged that the process will have to restart with the Senate voting first instead of the House.

But House Republicans will likely try again to add language condemning anti-Semitism, a move that would put Democrats in an uncomfortable political position to vote “no” on the amendment in order to ensure that the War Powers resolution advances to Trump’s desk. If that amendment passes, the measure would face the same obstacle from the Senate parliamentarian.

In the previous Congress, Republicans slipped a rule change into an unrelated piece of legislation which prevented the House from voting on a Yemen War Powers resolution that had passed the Senate in December.