Motion to Discharge

Floor Speech

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Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I find myself in the somewhat uncomfortable and unusual position of agreeing with Senator Paul. And let me thank him and Senator Lee for their hard work in reclaiming Congress's congressional war powers, another very important issue. The understanding that it is Congress that has the constitutional responsibility to authorize war--not the President--should, in fact, transcend partisan disagreements.

On November 18, we introduced a congressional resolution of disapproval to block the sale of 280 air-to-air missiles, 596 missile launchers, and other weapons and support--totaling some $650 million-- to Saudi Arabia. That is what we will be voting on in a few minutes.

Let me be very clear. As the Saudi Government continues to wage its devastating war in Yemen and repress its own people, we should not be rewarding them with more arms sales. We should be demanding that they end the devastating war in Yemen, which has killed over 230,000 people in one of the very poorest countries on Earth. For more than 6 years, the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen's civil war has been a key driver of the largest humanitarian disaster in the world--the largest.

According to UNICEF, four out of every five children in Yemen need humanitarian assistance--that is over 11 million children--400,000 children suffer from severe malnutrition; 1.7 million children have been displaced from their homes by violence from this war; and some 15 million people, more than half of whom are children, do not have access to safe water, sanitation, or hygiene.

United Nations humanitarian relief coordinator Martin Griffiths said in September: ``The country's economy has reached new depths of collapse, and a third wave of the pandemic is threatening to crash the country's already fragile healthcare system.''

According to Griffiths, millions of Yemenis are ``a step away from starvation.'' In other words, this poor country is hell on Earth. It is the worst humanitarian disaster on a planet.

Under first the Obama administration and then the Trump administration, the United States was Saudi Arabia's partner in this horrific war. In 2019, Congress made history--and I am very proud of that, and we did this in a bipartisan way--by passing the first-ever War Powers Resolution through both Chambers of Congress, pressing then- President Trump to end this military support. It marked the first time that Congress invoked the War Powers Resolution of 1973 to direct the President to withdraw troops from an undeclared war.

Sadly, tragically, President Trump vetoed that resolution.

Many of us welcomed the Biden administration's announcement earlier this year that it would end U.S. support for offensive military operations led by Saudi Arabia in Yemen and name a special envoy to help bring this conflict to an end, but the crisis has only continued.

American defense contractors continue to service Saudi planes that are waging the war, and the U.S. military also continues to provide intelligence to the Saudi Armed Forces. And now, tonight, we are looking at a new $650 million arms sale to the Saudi Armed Forces.

Now, I am aware that ending U.S. military support for Saudi Arabia's brutal assault will not alone end the multisided conflict in Yemen. The Houthis are launching bloody attacks on the central Yemeni city of Marib and increasing cross-border attacks on Saudi territory. Violence has also erupted between rival factions in the south of Yemen. A U.N. expert panel found that all parties to the conflict may have committed war crimes.

U.S. policy toward Saudi Arabia and this war should be clear: The United States must do everything in our power to bring this brutal and horrific war to an end. Exporting more missiles to Saudi Arabia does nothing but further this conflict and pour more gasoline on an already raging fire.

In my view, the United States must support an international observer mission along the Saudi-Yemeni border and spearhead generous international development efforts to rebuild Yemen. This aid should be focused on bolstering local humanitarian and development initiatives, like Yemen's Social Fund for Development.

We must also dramatically increase our diplomatic engagement to press Saudi Arabia, the Riyadh-based Republic of Yemen Government, and the Houthis to accept the U.N.'s roadmap as the basis for a compromise that ends foreign military intervention and allows Yemenis to come to an agreement. The war has gone on for too long, and it is time for the United States to be bold and to be decisive in bringing about peace.

I also think that it is long past time that we took a very hard look at our relationship with Saudi Arabia, a country whose government represents the very opposite of what we profess to believe in. Saudi Arabia is an extremely undemocratic country that is run by a hereditary, authoritarian monarchy, one of the wealthiest families in the world whose wealth is estimated to be over $1.4 trillion.

At a time when children in Yemen are starving to death, when that impoverished country's healthcare system is collapsing, when the people of Gaza are suffering mass unemployment and environmental devastation, when people throughout that region lack clean drinking water, Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman bought himself a $500 million yacht, a $300 million French chateau, and a $450 million Leonardo da Vinci painting. Mass starvation in the region that he helped create, children do not have housing or drinking water, and this guy buys himself a $450 million da Vinci painting.

According to Freedom House, a respected human rights organization:

Saudi Arabia's absolute monarchy restricts almost all political rights and civil liberties. No officials at the national level are elected. The regime relies on pervasive surveillance, the criminalization of dissent, appeals to sectarianism and ethnicity, and public spending supported by oil revenues to maintain power. Women and religious minorities face extensive discrimination in law and in practice.

Freedom House also notes that working conditions for the large migrant labor force are extremely exploitive.

Saudi Arabia is home to millions of migrant workers, many from African countries but also from Pakistan, India, and elsewhere. These workers constitute more than 80 percent of the private-sector workforce, often as laborers and other service workers. They are governed by an abusive system that gives their employers excessive power over their mobility and legal status in the country. As a result, these migrant workers are vulnerable to a wide range of abuses, from passport confiscation to delayed wages and forced labor.

According to Human Rights Watch, under the government headed by Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, ``Saudi Arabia has experienced the worst period of oppression in its modern history.''

Human Rights Watch reported earlier this year that ``accounts have emerged of alleged torture of high-profile political detainees in Saudi prisons,'' including Saudi women's rights activists and others. The alleged torture included electric shocks, beatings, whippings, and sexual harassment.

And I think we all understand the nature of this government. Every Member of Congress and I hope every American knows--and our own intelligence services made this very clear--that Muhammad bin Salman himself ordered the murder and the dismemberment of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 in retaliation for Khashoggi's criticisms of the Saudi regime. We all remember that terrible, terrible murder of a Washington Post columnist.

We also know that the Saudi regime has waged a campaign of harassment and attempted kidnapping against other critics, including on U.S. soil.

My simple question is: Why in the world would the United States reward such a regime which has caused such pain in Yemen with more weapons?

My friends, the answer is we should not. I urge my colleagues to support S.J. Res. 31.

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