June 17, 2022 10:50 a.m.

Congressman Peter DeFazio and Washington Representative Pramila Jayapal and lead sponsors of H.J. Resolution 87; the bipartisan Yemen War Powers Resolution which includes more than eighty cosponsors, issued a statement regarding the announcement that President Biden plans to visit Saudi Arabia’s rulers in mid-July.

The group said, “We share concerns of many of our Congressional colleagues who have expressed grave misgivings regarding the President’s planned meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and a ‘reset’ of the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia – after promising to treat the regime as a ‘pariah’. President Biden made a commitment ‘that America will never again check its principles at the door just to buy oil or sell weapons’ and would ‘end U.S. support for the disastrous Saudi-led war in Yemen’.

The statement said, “In light of the administration’s plan to use the visit to ‘push to end the war in Yemen’, Congress must play a constructive and active role in fulfilling these promises, while asserting its rightful constitutional role over war and peace”. The group urged Congress to consider the bipartisan Yemen War Powers Resolution to ensure the President’s goal is realized.

The release said the United States has participated in the Saud-led war in Yemen for more than seven years without Congressional authorization. The group believes the conflict has caused “..the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, which continues to impact tens of millions of innocent Yemenis, including children”. Their statement concludes by saying, “That suffering and the United States’ role in it, must be brought to an end”.