December 12, 2019: Yemen | Letter to U.S. Congress leaders
Along with several partner organizations, Freedom Forward urged leaders in Congress to retain Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger’s amendment (which called for an end to US support in the Yemen War) in the final version of the FY 2020 Defense Appropriations bill.
Text below: (PDF here)
Dear Speaker Pelosi and Chairwoman Lowey:
We, the undersigned groups, thank you for your leadership in working to bring about an end to the war and humanitarian crisis affecting the people of Yemen, and for reasserting Congress’s constitutional authority over war and the use of force.
In light of your key roles in negotiating a deal on FY 2020 Defense Appropriations bill, we ask that you do everything in your power to see that Congressman Ruppersberger’s amendment to end unconstitutional U.S. participation in the Saudi-led war in Yemen be retained through House-Senate conference negotiations and adopted in the final bill presented to President Trump. We also ask that you strengthen the language of this amendment so there is no carve out of intelligence sharing for offensive operations agains the Houthis, so this provision ends all of our our military support to the Saudi-UAE coalition war on Yemen.
After invoking the War Powers Resolution of 1973 for the first time in 45 years to signal the will of bipartisan, bicameral majorities in Congress that unconstitutional U.S. participation in the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen be terminated, Congress has an opportunity in the FY2020 Defense Appropriations bill to override President Trump’s veto to S.J.Res.7 in this must-pass spending bill.
While the devastating U.S.-Saudi war in Yemen continues and the humanitarian crisis it has produced remains—10 million Yemenis are still living on the brink of famine—momentum is building for an end to the conflict due to your efforts. The ongoing dialogue between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis, significant reductions of cross border attacks, good faith prisoner exchanges, and a strengthening Hodeida ceasefire are all positive outcomes of congressional action on Yemen. Continued congressional pressure on the Saudi-UAE coalition will encourage the parties to finally realize a ceasefire deal and achieve lasting peace in Yemen.
Thanks for your leadership on trying to bring about peace in Yemen and your efforts to reassert congressional war authority. Again, we ask that you do everything in your power to see Representative Ruppersberger’s amendment be retained in the final DOD Appropriations bill sent to the President.
Sincerely,
Avaaz
Demand Progress
Freedom Forward
Friends Committee on National Legislation
CC: Chairman Smith, Chairman Engel, and Representatives Kapatur, Viclosky, Serrano, DeLauro, Price, Royball-Allard, Lee, McCollum, Ryan, Ruppersberger, Wasserman Schultz, Cuellar, Pingree, Quigley, Kilmer, Cartwright, Meng, Pocan, Clark, Aguilar, Frankel, Bustos, Bustos, Coleman, Lawrence, Torres, Crist, Kilpatrick, and Casey