Congress is moving ahead with legislation to block $8 billion of arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates after the Trump administration declared an 'emergency' to bypass Congress and move ahead with the controversial sale over lawmakers' objections given the two countries
Congress is moving ahead with legislation to block $8 billion of arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates after the Trump administration declared an"emergency" to bypass Congress and move ahead with the controversial sale over lawmakers' objections given the two countries' human rights records.
"There is no emergency. It's phony, it's made up, and it's an abuse of the law -- once again, attempting to cut Congress out of the whole picture," said the committee's chair, Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y."This is not a dictatorship. We don't rule this country by fiat ... Remember when you were in school and you learned checks and balances? Congress is a coequal branch of government.
Some members had delayed these sales because of their concerns over the Saudi and Emirati coalition's alleged war crimes in Yemen -- using U.S.-made bombs to target civilians and civilian infrastructure -- as well as their human rights abuses at home. To push past those objections, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued the emergency declaration on May 24, which bypasses congressional authority for an arms sale.
That drew ire from lawmakers. Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., accused him of"gaslighting" and called his arguments"an absurdity," while Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., scolded Clarke,"Please don't ... I don't appreciate the effort to be clever and refuse to answer the question." The sale includes defensive Patriot missiles to protect from Houthi attacks, such as the one on Abha International Airport in southwestern Saudi Arabia on Wednesday that injured at least 26 civilians. But a"number of them" of the sales are for offensive weapons for the Saudis to conduct their bombing campaign in Yemen, Clarke said.
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