Stand-Alone Effort to Stop Saudi Sales Is Doomed, Minority Leader Says, but Another Tack Might Succeed

The House of Representatives intends to vote on Senate resolutions to block arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates next week, but Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., acknowledged that these restrictions will not become law, because they do not have enough support to override a veto. The Senate vote was 53-45. He said the vote is still important to show that Congress disapproves of how the government of Saudi Arabia is conducting itself.

But there's still a possibility that Congress could have a say in future arms sales by restricting the administration's ability to use emergency powers to go around Congress to authorize the sales. The House will be voting on two amendments to the defense authorization bill that address the issue.

In one, there's a one-year ban on selling air-to-ground munitions to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, because those munitions are used in their interventions in the Yemen civil war.

The other amendment would limit the ability of the executive branch to use emergency powers to authorize sales. The emergency could only be invoked in the first 90 days it is in place. The administration has been using the Iran emergency as justification for the Saudi sales, and that emergency dates back to the 1970s. It also would limit use of an emergency determination to approve overseas manufacturing or co-production of defense items to extensions or renewals of existing licenses. When asked by Export Compliance Daily whether such an amendment could be approved, survive negotiations with the Senate, and then get signed into law, because the president would not want to veto such a crucial bill, Hoyer said: "That's possible."