House Votes to End US Military Involvement in Yemen War

Votes ran mostly along party lines, 16 Republicans support

After voting down a Republican motion to recommit, the House of Representatives voted on Thursday to pass S.J. Res 7, the Senate version of the War Powers Act challenge to US involvement in the war in Yemen. The vote was 247-175-1.

This Senate passed this resolution in March, and sends the resolution to President Trump, who has threatened to veto it. So far it appears unlikely that Congress will be able to override such a veto.

Both House votes on Yemen ran heavily along party lines. The War Powers Act requires any US war to be approved by Congress, and the resolution notes that Congress never authorized any such war in Yemen.

The administration has argued that the four years of war in Yemen technically don’t count under the War Powers Act, sometimes overtly lying about the extent of US involvement in Yemen, and other times arguing that support fo the Saudi-led war is obligated because of arms sales to them.

This is the second House vote on the War Powers challenge in 2019. The previous vote was derailed by an amendment on anti-Semitism, which forced the Senate to start over, and the House to then adopt the Senate’s language, as they did in this vote.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is news editor of