Rep. Massie calls out leadership farm bill ‘trick’ to avoid debate on … Yemen resolution

The House Rules Committee released the terms of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, more commonly known as the farm bill, late Tuesday night. Embedded in the legislative language was a provision to squash debate on the completely unrelated resolution about the constitutionality of the U.S.’s military involvement in Yemen.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., called out the move on Twitter, saying that it was a “trick” from Congressional leadership to avoid debate on the issue.

Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., “is shirking responsibility for debating our involvement in the Yemen war by hiding the war resolution in a procedural vote on the farm bill,” Massie wrote. “SAD!”

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, spearheaded the resolution at issue months ago over concerns that the U.S.’s ongoing involvement in the conflict between Saudi Arabian government forces and Yemeni rebels violates the Constitution’s rules about declaring war.

“Over the past century, Congress’s power to declare war has been willfully eroded,” Lee said in a February press release. “Successive presidents have claimed that power — and the politicians in Congress have been only too happy to give it away, in order to avoid tough votes. This resolution is a first step toward Congress re-asserting its power over foreign policy decision-making.”

The resolution recently passed the Senate thanks in no small part to the ongoing controversy surrounding the Trump administration’s relationship with Saudi Arabia after the killing of so-called journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

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