S.J. Res. 7

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, in March, the Senate narrowly passed a resolution that would have misused the War Powers Act and actually hampered efforts to bring the conflict in Yemen to a close. Fortunately, the President vetoed it.

So today, Members will have a second chance to send the right message to our partners in the region, to important humanitarian missions, and to eradicating al-Qaida from the Arabian Peninsula. I urge my colleagues to vote to uphold the President's veto.

The resolution before us starts from false premises. We are not parties to the civil war in Yemen. We are no longer providing even air- to-air refueling.

More important, the resolution would make it actually more difficult to prevent the loss of innocent lives. This resolution would require U.S. advisers to cease training and intelligence sharing operations that help pilots avoid civilian casualties. And it would dry up U.S. noncombat support to the weakened, U.N.-recognized government in Yemen.

The resolution would also create serious new problems for the U.N.- led diplomatic mission that is doing all it can to negotiate an end to the bloodshed.

Abandoning our Yemeni, Emirati, and Saudi partners just as diplomatic efforts are starting to make progress is hardly the way to give them the confidence to take the hard diplomatic steps that are necessary.

An abrupt withdrawal of U.S. support for the coalition would be good news for Iran, for the Houthi rebels they support, and, of course, al- Qaida, as well.

I share many of my colleagues' serious concerns about aspects of Saudi Arabia's behavior, but the best way for us to encourage better behavior from our partners is to remain involved with Saudi Arabia and the UAE, not push them into the arms of Russia and China.

The War Powers Act is a blunt tool, and not at all the right vehicle to productively or diplomatically express concern about the behavior of close partners of the United States.

The Senate passed a more nuanced resolution in December of last year, and it has many other tools to register concern and disapproval. If Senators want to play a productive role in this conflict, I would encourage them to meet with Saudi, Emirati, and Yemeni officials, to travel to the region, and to hold hearings on this important matter.

But for all the reasons I have laid out, this particular resolution is a particularly bad idea. I urge each of my colleagues to join me in setting it aside and upholding the President's veto.

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