The U.S. Senate voted Thursday to check the executive branch’s war powers authority by voting to end U.S. support of the Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen.
Senators voted 56-41 in favor of the resolution, which passed after lawmakers agreed to a series of amendments, including on by Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., to block the U.S. military from in-flight refueling of Saudi jets.
Support for the measure was fueled by a growing disdain for the Yemeni civil war, which has created a humanitarian crisis and has killed more than 10,000 people.
Senators were also eager to punish the Saudi government over its involvement in the brutal murder of dissident Jamal Khashoggi, who was also a columnist at the Washington Post.
Opponents said the measure was worded too broadly and endangered the executive branch authority to conduct military operations abroad.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., urged lawmakers to instead back a “more responsible” resolution by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., that encodes the Senate’s belief that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman orchestrated Khashoggi’s death. The Corker resolution also calls for a peaceful end to the Yemen war and an end to in-flight refueling of Saudi planes conducting the deadly airstrikes.
The Saudis have been engaged in a civil war in Yemen against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.
“The war in Yemen is unauthorized,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., a sponsor of the resolution, said Thursday. “There has never been a vote to allow our men and women to participate in that war, and therefore that war is unconstitutional. It has got to end.”
Sanders called the vote “an historic moment,” and a message to the executive branch “that the constitutional responsibility for making war rests with the United States Congress, not the White House.”
Lawmakers rejected amendments offered by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., that would continue allowing the U.S. military to provide some support to the Saudis if intended to reduce civilian casualties or in cases of fighting Iran-backed Houthis outside Yemen.
The resolution is dead for the year, as the House voted Wednesday to prevent Yemen-related resolutions from coming up for a vote.
Even if it cleared the House, President Trump would veto the bill and lawmakers would then have to provide a two-thirds majority in each chamber to override it.
