Providing for Consideration of H.R. Manage Our Wolves Act, and Providing for Proceedings During the Period From November Through November 2018

Floor Speech

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Mr. KHANNA. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman McGovern for his moral leadership.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to this rule that will deny Members of Congress an up-or-down vote about whether the United States should be complicit in the war in Yemen.

Let's be very clear. This is unprecedented in American history. Never has the Speaker of the House and the majority denied a Member of Congress a vote on matters of war and peace. This is basically rendering ineffectual the War Powers Act.

The War Powers Act was passed in a bipartisan fashion after Vietnam because our Nation said never again are we going to make the mistake of Vietnam. We are going to make sure that, if a Member of Congress calls for a vote, Members of Congress have the Article I, Section 8 responsibility to vote on matters of war and peace. What the majority is saying is that if the President of the United States and the Speaker believe we should be in war, then we should be in war, and it doesn't matter what Members of Congress think.

That is what they are doing with this rule.

Now, they are arguing that we are not complicit in the hostilities of Yemen to invoke the War Powers Act. But you can read every article written on this in the international press or the national press, and it starts with a simple line: the U.S.-backed Saudi coalition efforts in bombing.

Of course we are complicit. Do you think people in Yemen don't think we are complicit? Do you think people in the Middle East or our allies don't think we are complicit?

With due respect, Congressman Newhouse says: Well, why not wait? Why not wait a few weeks until we are in the majority?

Mr. Speaker, special envoy Griffith in every report has said that 500,000 children will die in a matter of months. They don't have aid. They don't have nutrition.

Let's be very clear on what we are doing. While we are bombing the ports of Hodaida, we are not allowing food and aid to get to those kids.

When history is written, they are not going to say that Jim McGovern did this or Ro Khanna did this or Newhouse did this. They are going to say: How did the Congress not allow a vote while hundreds of thousands of kids were not allowed food and medicine?

That is not the America that I believe in. It is not the America that so many Republican colleagues believe in. There is a reason that our Founders gave Congress the power over war and peace, because we have to go and answer to our constituents.

I will tell you something. There is not a single American who wouldn't want the violence to end and allow food and medicine to get to those kids who are going to face death if we do nothing.

I plead with my Republican colleagues: Please vote ``no'' on this resolution. Let's have a debate. Let's have a debate about the starvation and the killing going on there and do the right thing for our Constitution and the world.

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