President Trump’s hope to circumvent Senate oversight with an emergency
declaration on arms sales to Saudi Arabia appears to have backfired. If
anything, this effort seems to have drawn even more attention to the
planned sales, and fueled even more Senate objections.
Now, in addition to 22 resolutions objecting to the sales, the Senate is introducing a new bill on Monday aimed to force a vote
on all security aid to Saudi Arabia, including arms sales, and
conditioning them on a Congressional review of Saudi human rights
issues.
Trump aimed to bypass oversight on $8.1 billion in sales, knowing they
would face objections, by claiming an “emergency” that meant it couldn’t
wait for Congress to vote. Since the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi
by the Saudi government, there has been discomfort with arms sales to
the Saudis. Trump has objected to this additional resistance, arguing
that the sales are worth a lot of money.
That, and Trump’s cynical attempts to skirt oversight, are fueling bipartisan opposition,
with Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Rand Paul (R-KY), and Todd Young
(R-IN) all squarely on the side of blocking the arms sales now. Graham
has predicted more support is coming, and with broad support on the
other side of the aisle it wouldn’t take a lot more backing to stop the
deals.
This new bill on oversight of the Saudis, if passed in the Senate, would
move on to the House, where passage would be all but assured. This is
likely to mean another Trump veto on the Saudis’ behalf,
Other potential obstacle is the Senate leadership, which has often tried
to spare Trump from embarrassing vetoes with dubious interpretations of
the rules. Though legally a resolution of disapproval under the Arms
Export Control Act is privileged, and therefore the Senators can insist
on getting a vote, this has never previously been attempted after a
president claimed a state of emergency, and its likely at least some
leaders will argue that the emergency somehow changes things.
This is a risky proposition though, since even the declaration of
emergency was wildly controversial. Trump argued Iran, in and of itself,
amounts to an emergency situation, even though it is not readily
apparent that anything with respect to Iran has changed, and the Saudi
arms are for attacking Yemen, not Iran.
Senators Hope to Force Vote on Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia
Senators object to Trump's use of loophole to skirt oversight
Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.
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