HJ Res 37, the War Powers Act challenge to US involvement in the war in Yemen, passed today in the House by a final vote of 248-177. Though the bill was bipartisan in nature, it was split almost entirely on party lines, with the Democratic majority voting unanimously for it, and only a small number of Republicans supporting it.



Debate underscored this split on the matter, with opponents arguing that the bill was “pro-Iran” because it opposed a war against a Shi’ite political faction with some nominal ties to Iran. They also argued that reviewing the war because of huge civilian death tolls could force the US to review military ties with over 100 other nations.



Two amendments passed into the resolution. The first, from Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO), included language saying that the US could keep helping Saudis target victims in their air war, because intelligence sharing is important. This passed 252-177.



The broader amendment was from Rep. David Kostoff (R-TN), who demanded the whole resolution about the Yemen War be reintroduced to include a lot of language opposing anti-Semitism, and expressing opposition to the BDS movement boycotting Israel. This passed unanimously, 424-0.



This accomplished, the resolution quickly passed in a five minute vote. Even with all of the pro-Israel language included, Republicans overwhemingly resisted the resolution.



This will force the Senate to reconcile their version of the bill wit the House one, with its amendments and extra language. There is no timeline publicly available on this happening.



Even then, President Trump has threatened to veto the bill, and the House final results leave it a very open question if overriding the veto is at all possible. If the Republicans remain almost uniformly against the resolution, it seems unlikely it will survive.



Author: Jason Ditz Jason Ditz is news editor of Antiwar.com. View all posts by Jason Ditz