The bill to get the U.S. out of Yemen's civil war won't get a vote in the Senate
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The House of Representatives voted 248-177 earlier this month to end U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalition intervening in Yemen's civil war — but the bill won't get a vote in the Senate.
House Republicans added an amendment to the legislation condemning anti-Semitism, and the Senate's parliamentarian this week determined the addition is not germane to the broader content of the bill. That determination is thought to be the basis for removing the bill's "privileged" status, which would have guaranteed it a vote on the Senate floor.
Now that the legislation has been "de-privileged," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) can decline to bring the measure to a vote.
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"We will reintroduce the clean version that we passed in the Senate last year and send it back to the House for a vote," said a representative from the office of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who is sponsoring the bill with Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.).
Even with a clean version, obstacles would remain. House Republicans could introduce the same amendment again, which would put House Democrats and the minority of House Republicans who backed the bill in the unfortunate position of having to vote against condemning anti-Semitism to keep the legislation viable. And President Trump has threatened to veto the bill if it arrives at his desk.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
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