Speaking Wednesday on the US House of Representatives floor, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) explained how the House leadership, through the House Rules Committee, on Tuesday night violated both the US Constitution and the War Powers Act in taking action to prevent a debate and vote on whether the US military should continue to be involved in the ongoing war on Yemen. This “illegal and unconstitutional action,” Massie describes, includes in the farm bill rule to be considered in the House a provision dictating that House members cannot, pursuant to the War Powers Act, bring to the House floor proposals to terminate US military actions overseas as Massie and colleagues have attempted to do in regards to US involvement in the Yemen War.
On November 28, a US Senate floor vote discharged from committee Senate Joint Resolution 54, such a measure seeking to end US military support for the war. That vote is a key step toward debating and voting in the Senate on the US military’s involvement in the war.
The House leadership action, Massie further explains has implications beyond the war on Yemen, as the leadership is “preemptively sweeping all of the power of the Congress under the War Powers Act under the rug for the entire remainder of this congressional session,” that is until a new Congress begins in January. The leadership’s action, continues Massie sets a “horrible” and “dangerous” precedent with the House speaker “grabbing more power” to ensure that the Congress gives “more power to the executive branch” and that House members abdicate their “constitutional responsibility to decide when and where our military should go”
Watch Massie’s complete House floor speech here:
Massie is an Advisory Board member at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.
