You won't catch us endorsing the NDAA, but its amendment process does reveal a lot about Congressional priorities. In the House this week, a bipartisan collection of representatives will push ten-different Yemen-related amendments:
& @repmarkpocan will introduce an amendment that, if passed, would give the administration 90 days to provide some transparency on refueling operations to the Saudi-led coalition operating in Yemen: amendments-rules.house.gov/amendments/ORO…
We've pushed for basic information on refueling activities, and on the acquisition and cross-servicing agreement that allows it, for months. If passed, this amendment would force the administration to provide some transparency to Congress--
While forcing the admin to provide evidence for its oft-repeated claim that refueling assistance helps improve coalition targeting and reduces civilian casualties
& @RepBarbaraLee will advance an amendment requiring the DoD to produce an unclassified report on the impact of the civil war on AQAP and ISIS activity in Yemen: amendments-rules.house.gov/amendments/Yem…
It looks like @RepRoKhanna & @RepWalterJones will push for a vote on an amendment that didn't make it out of committee several weeks ago, which prohibits funding for the refueling of non-US aircraft conducting anti-Houthi missions in Yemen: amendments-rules.house.gov/amendments/Yem…
& @RepBarbaraLee team up again for an amendment that would force the DoD to investigate and produce an unclassified report on US complicity in coalition human rights abuses in a manner violating federal law: amendments-rules.house.gov/amendments/Yem…
& @RepTedYoho are introducing a fairly comprehensive measure for a floor vote: amendments-rules.house.gov/amendments/LIE…
The amendment asks the Secretary of Defense to certify, after 30, 180, and 360 days, that the coalition is not arming or training radical militias in Yemen, but that it is supplying the US --
--"the objectives, flight plans, targets, collateral damage estimates, and battle damage assessments of Saudi-led coalition missions in Yemen." If these two certifications can't be met, then funding for refueling would cease.
The administration says that refueling helps improve coalition targeting but that it can't cover results of missions. This amendment calls their bluff.
Additionally, it gets at the blind eye that multiple administrations have turned toward proliferating militias in Yemen. The longer the war goes on, the more we've seen the internationally recognized gov't's coalition fragment--
--and the rise of petty warlords across the country technically working under the government's banner, some with extreme views, severely complicates any post-war reconstruction. This amendment forces the administration to reckon with this dynamic.
is introducing a straightforward amendment to withhold the appropriation of funds for the deployment of US personnel to "participate in the ongoing civil war in Yemen": amendments-rules.house.gov/amendments/NOL…
While this would affect the personnel already involved in the conflict, it also has an eye toward mission creep and escalation, something that should be on the minds of all lawmakers following the administration's recent, er, "diplomatic" measures.
& @repmarkpocan are introducing an amendment that would prevent logistical support to the coalition and on-the-ground support for coalition ops until DoD can certify that Hudaydah port "is completely open to aid and the commercial flow of food, fuel, and medicine."
This amendment is exceedingly important in light of the coalition advance toward and possible assault on Hudaydah, which some are beginning to spin as an inevitability that will bring the war to a close--
--Seems as if this amendment has been introduced with the severe humanitarian risks of such an offensive in mind.
is offering an amendment that would require the DoD to submit to HASC & SASC a report "regarding all activities" conducted by US armed forces and civilian defense personnel "in providing assistance to the coalition" since March 2015--
Again, a reporting requirement that would be unnecessary if multiple administrations hadn't attempted to play down and obfuscate US involvement in Yemen's civil war.
& @RepBarbaraLee are introducing an amendment that bluntly withdraws funds for the "transfer [of] precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia" until the US--
--withdraws from unauthorized support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. This is a two-fer, re-upping the very relevant debate on congressional war powers w/ respect to the conflict in Yemen, while, importantly--
--getting out ahead of consistent rumors that Raytheon & the USG are pushing forward with a massive PGM sale to the coalition. The same US-made PGMs that have repeatedly turned up at civilian sites struck by coalition planes in Yemen.
Whoops! The links to the last two amendments (Jayapal/Pocan and Pocan/Amash/Jones/McGovern/Lee) are here: amendments-rules.house.gov/amendments/JAY…; amendments-rules.house.gov/amendments/POC…
And last (but not least), @RepKarenBass is introducing an amendment requiring State, DoD, & USAID to submit to Congress "a comprehensive report on United States security and humanitarian interests in Yemen," including--
--humanitarian support to "civilian populations under threat of famine," "a description of efforts to coordinate civilian and military efforts with respect to Yemen," and "a description of the diplomatic strategy" to ending the civil war: amendments-rules.house.gov/amendments/BAS…
Whether they halt, condition, or otherwise demand reporting on facets of US involvement in Yemen's civil war, all the above amendments are welcome for the scrutiny they bring toward the US role in the conflict (and the under-discussed US role in facilitating an end to the war).
Though the odds of all ten making their way into the final NDAA are...slim, members from both parties should weigh them carefully and cast a vote in their favor when they come up on the floor this week.
