The bill to get the U.S. out of Yemen's civil war won't get a vote in the Senate
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.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"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.
-
Political cartoons for November 8Cartoons Saturday’s political cartoons include narco boats, and the new Lincoln monument
-
Why Trump pardoned crypto criminal Changpeng ZhaoIn the Spotlight Binance founder’s tactical pardon shows recklessness is rewarded by the Trump White House
-
Codeword: November 8, 2025The Week's daily codeword puzzle
-
Has Zohran Mamdani shown the Democrats how to win again?Today’s Big Question New York City mayoral election touted as victory for left-wing populists but moderate centrist wins elsewhere present more complex path for Democratic Party
-
Senate votes to kill Trump’s Brazil tariffSpeed Read Five Senate Republicans joined the Democrats in rebuking Trump’s import tax
-
Border Patrol gets scrutiny in court, gains power in ICESpeed Read Half of the new ICE directors are reportedly from DHS’s more aggressive Customs and Border Protection branch
-
Shutdown stalemate nears key pain pointsSpeed Read A federal employee union called for the Democrats to to stand down four weeks into the government standoff
-
Trump vows new tariffs on Canada over Reagan adspeed read The ad that offended the president has Ronald Reagan explaining why import taxes hurt the economy
-
NY attorney general asks public for ICE raid footageSpeed Read Rep. Dan Goldman claims ICE wrongly detained four US citizens in the Canal Street raid and held them for a whole day without charges
-
Trump’s huge ballroom to replace razed East WingSpeed Read The White House’s east wing is being torn down amid ballroom construction
-
Trump expands boat strikes to Pacific, killing 5 moreSpeed Read The US military destroyed two more alleged drug smuggling boats in international waters
