Executive Session
Floor Speech
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Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, there should be no issue of more importance to Members of Congress than the issue of war and peace and when it is appropriate to send the young people of our country into harm's way, knowing that some of them will not return home alive.
It goes without saying that every armed conflict the United States of America is engaged in must be consistent with the Constitution of the United States and be lawful.
Let's make no mistake about it--article I, section 8 of the Constitution states in no uncertain terms that ``Congress shall have the power to . . . declare war.'' The Founding Fathers gave the power to declare war to Congress because Congress is that body most accountable to the people.
For far too long, Congress--under Democratic and Republican administrations--has abdicated its constitutional role in authorizing war. The time is long overdue for Congress to reassert its constitutional authority. If you think that a military intervention makes sense, then let's have that debate on the floors of the Senate and the House and cast a vote. But that is not what we have been seeing for a number of years.
What Senator Lee and Senator Murphy and I are doing with privileged resolution S.J. Res. 54 is demanding that Congress once again take its constitutional responsibility for war and peace seriously. I thank Senators Durbin, Warren, and Booker for coming on board that resolution. I hope this bipartisan resolution will gain more and more support in the coming days.
Many Americans are unaware that the people of Yemen are suffering today in a devastating civil war, with Saudi Arabia and their allies on one side and Houthi rebels on the other.
In November of last year, the United Nations emergency relief coordinator said that Yemen was on the brink of ``the largest famine the world has seen for many decades.'' So far, at least 10,000 civilians have died, 3 million have been displaced, and over 40,000 have been wounded in this war. Fifteen million people lack access to clean water and sanitation. More than 20 million people in Yemen--over two-thirds of that country's population--need some kind of humanitarian support, with nearly 10 million in acute need of assistance. More than 1 million suspected cholera cases have been reported--1 million cholera cases have been reported--representing potentially the worst cholera outbreak in world history.
Many Americans probably are not aware that U.S. forces have been actively engaged in support of the Saudis in this terrible war, providing intelligence and aerial refueling of planes whose bombs have killed thousands of people and made this crisis far worse.
We believe--and I speak for Senator Lee and Senator Murphy--that as Congress has not declared war or authorized military force in this conflict, U.S. involvement in Yemen is unconstitutional and unauthorized, and U.S. military support of the Saudi coalition must end. Without congressional authorization, our engagement in this war should be restricted to providing desperately needed humanitarian aid and diplomatic efforts to put an end to this terrible conflict. That is why yesterday we introduced a joint resolution pursuant to the 1973 War Powers Resolution calling for an end to U.S. support for the Saudi war in Yemen.
The War Powers Resolution defines the introduction of U.S. Armed Forces to include ``the assignment of members of such armed forces to command, coordinate, participate in the movement of, or accompany the regular or irregular military forces of any foreign country or government when such military forces are engaged, or there exists an imminent threat that such forces will become engaged, in hostilities.'' That is from the War Powers Resolution. Assisting with targeting intelligence and refueling warplanes as they bomb those targets clearly meets this definition.
This is not a partisan issue. Support for the Saudi intervention in Yemen began under a Democratic President and has continued under a Republican one. Senator Lee is a conservative Republican. I am a progressive Independent who caucuses with the Democrats.
In November of last year--and it is important that Members of the Senate hear this--the U.S. House of Representatives, by a vote of 366 to 30, passed a nonbinding resolution stating that U.S. involvement in the Yemen civil war is unauthorized. Every Member of the Democratic leadership voted for this. Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi voted for it. Minority Whip Steny Hoyer voted for it. The ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Eliot Engel, voted for it, as did the Republican chairman of that committee, Ed Royce.
Here is the bottom line: If the President or Members of Congress believe that support for this war is in the U.S. interest and that we should be involved in it, then let them come to the floor of the House and Senate, make their case, and then let's have a vote.
I believe we have become far too comfortable with the United States engaging in military interventions all over the world. We have now been in Afghanistan for nearly 17 years--the longest war in American history. Our troops are now in Syria under what I believe are questionable authorities, and the administration has indicated that it may broaden that military mission even more.
The time is long overdue for Congress to reassert its constitutional role in determining when and where our country goes to war. I am very proud to be working with Senators Lee, Murphy, and others on this vitally important issue.
Thank you very much
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