Lee Zeldin: “I thank Chairman McCaul for yielding. I have great respect for him, as well as our committee chair, Eliot Engel. Mr.…”

“I thank Chairman McCaul for yielding. I have great respect for him, as well as our committee chair, Eliot Engel. Mr. Chair, I rise today in opposition to H.J. Res. 37, directing the removal of U.S. Armed Forces from unauthorized hostilities in Yemen. One of the reasons why is because we aren't even engaged in hostilities in Yemen. {time} 1445 The United States is not involved in any direct live fire exchanges. Last November, the U.S. stopped aerial refueling of Saudi jets. According to the Department of Defense, U.S. support to the coalition is for defensive purposes only. It focuses only on helping minimize civilian casualties, which means that this resolution, if passed and implemented, will actually result in less food and medicine getting into Yemen and more civilians dying, and the war will not end. If anyone wants to propose a bill and pass one cutting off or conditioning specified U.S. security assistance to Saudi Arabia, they have the ability to do so. That is not this bill. What is also important is that there are a lot of freshman Members here in this Chamber, and the fact that we are rushing this to the floor so quickly without having a classified briefing for all of those Members is also deeply unfortunate. That should take place before passing this resolution. Congress has many other ways to engage in oversight efforts for U.S. security assistance with Saudi Arabia, including approving arms sales and through appropriations.…”