In December, the Senate successfully passed a War Powers Act resolution calling for the end to US support for the Saudi War in Yemen. The House leadership at the time refused to allow a vote, but with the Democrats now the leadership, such a resolution is expected to be voted on in the next six weeks.



Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), one of the authors of the House version, says it will be identical to the Senate version. The Senate will also have to re-vote, as a new Senate was seated since the last vote, though 51 senators who voted for the last bill are still seated.



It is widely expected, then, that both houses of Congress will successfully pass War Powers challenges to the Yemen War, though they say the exact timing may be unclear because of the government’s shutdown.



Even then, there is an expectation that President Trump will veto the measure. This would be a politically difficult veto for the president, as the War Powers Act is explicitly meant to give Congress oversight of US wars, and a veto would effectively be the president overriding Congress on refusing to back a war that was illegally launched in the first place.





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