Bill Lee: “I thank the Senator from Vermont. I appreciate his remarks and his leadership on this, and I appreciate the remarks that…”

“I thank the Senator from Vermont. I appreciate his remarks and his leadership on this, and I appreciate the remarks that Senator Durbin and Senator Murphy have added to this discussion. I want to close by pointing out that in addition to being unlawful and in addition to being unconstitutional, our involvement in Yemen is unproductive in the fight against terrorism. The Houthis we are fighting are a regional force--one that doesn't harbor ambitions of attacking the U.S. homeland. While the Houthis are certainly no friend of ours, neither are they a serious threat to our country. Yet we are diverting considerable resources to fighting the Houthis, resources that would be better spent fighting more substantial threats--threats that harbor, rather openly, ambitions of bringing down the United States, of attacking the United States. These are threats like al-Qaida or ISIS. On that point, the best evidence we have suggests that their involvement in Yemen has arguably undermined our fight against ISIS. The State Department's most recent study, its most recent ``Country Reports on Terrorism''--which, by the way, happens to be the authority on that subject for Congress and the American people--says that we have inadvertently strengthened ISIS by killing off its antagonists, the Houthis. This just reinforces the farcical character that our military excursions in the Middle East have the potential to undertake.…”