Washington, December 14 (RHC)-- In an historic vote, the U.S. Senate has passed a resolution calling for an end to U.S. military and financial support for the Saudi-led war on Yemen.  This represents the first time in U.S. history the Senate has voted to withdraw military forces from an unauthorized war using the War Powers Resolution.  

The measure passed 56 to 41. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut co-sponsored the bill.  He told reporters: “I think today is a watershed moment for Congress.  We are reasserting our responsibility to be a coequal branch with the executive in foreign policy making.  It’s a role that Congress has abdicated for decades.  And what we showed in this vote today is that Republicans and Democrats are ready to get back in the business of working with a president -- and sometimes against the president -- to set the foreign policy of this nation.” 
 
But the bill is not expected to pass the House this year.  On Thursday, House Republicans narrowly passed a farm bill which included a provision blocking a War Powers Resolution vote on Yemen.  

The U.S.-backed Saudi war has devastated Yemen.  A new report says half of Yemen’s 28 million people are now “food insecure.”  Nearly 3,000 people died in Yemen just last month, making it the deadliest month in the past two years of war.