Rand Paul: 'Extraordinary Moment' When Senate Passed Resolution Invoking War Powers to Stop Illegal Yemen War

by Matthew Boyle
Breitbart
Dec. 14, 2018

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) told Breitbart News it was an “extraordinary moment” when the U.S. Senate on Thursday passed a resolution to invoke the War Powers act expressing congressional disapproval of U.S. backing of Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen.

The resolution passed 56-41 on final passage, over the objections of many establishment Republicans, but with strong support from conservatives like Paul and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), as well as from grassroots leftists like Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with Democrats.

“I think it is an extraordinary moment because for decades, maybe for 50 or 60 years, Congress has been relinquishing and abdicating their power to indicate whether the country is at war,” Paul told Breitbart News. “So this is a big step and it is a big majority voting to say you know what? Declaration of war comes from Congress and we don’t approve of the war in Yemen now. So that is a big step and it really came across the aisle, both sides coming together. It’s a pretty big deal…. The historic nature of this being the first time since Vietnam is huge.”

What Paul means is that the U.S. Congress passed into law the War Powers Act in 1973–overriding a presidential veto from Richard Nixon–in the wake of the highly unpopular Vietnam War. The law has never been invoked by either Chamber since the House and Senate overrode Nixon’s veto, but now on Thursday, for the first time ever, the U.S. Senate has by a majority invoked the War Powers Act.

From here forward, Paul said that while House GOP leadership has used rules potentially unlawfully to block consideration of a House resolution the new incoming Democrat leadership on the House side may be friendlier to this cause in January.

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