March, 13 2019, 12:00am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Paul Kawika Martin, Peace Action, 951-217-7285 cell, pmartin@peace-action.org
Gabe Murphy, Peace Action, 510-501-3345 cell, gmurphy@peaceaction.org
Senate Votes Again for Ending U.S. Role in Yemen War
WASHINGTON
In response to the Senate passing S.J.Res. 7, legislation directing the president to withdraw U.S. support for the Saudi/UAE-led war in Yemen, Paul Kawika Martin, Senior Director for Policy and Political Affairs at Peace Action, released the following statement:
"This Senate vote moves us one step closer to ending U.S. support for the catastrophic war in Yemen, a war that makes America complicit in the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. For nearly four years, U.S. support for the war in Yemen has embodied a side of American foreign policy that answers to foreign-backed lobbyists and arms industry profit motives before strategic and security interests and the Constitution. Congressional authority over war was designed to avoid the type of situation that's been unfolding in Yemen, where unauthorized U.S. military support began without public debate or scrutiny, and continues despite its deleterious impact on the people of Yemen and on U.S. national security interests. The Senate's vote to end the U.S. role in Yemen is also a vote to re-democratize our nation's foreign policy.
"High-level diplomats have confirmed that the work by Senators Lee (R-UT), Murphy (D-CT) and Sanders (I-VT) to force congressional votes to end U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalition have positively impacted negotiations to end the war. Ending U.S. support will put even more pressure on Saudi Arabia and the UAE to change their tactics and finally negotiate an end to the war.
"Sadly, Republican leadership in Congress has used a series of procedural gimmicks to repeatedly delay congressional action to end the U.S. role in Yemen, condemning more innocent Yemenis to death as U.S. support continues to prolong the war. Most recently, Senate leadership was able to block a vote on similar legislation passed by the House in February because of an amendment included in the House version that was unrelated to the underlying resolution. Now that the new Senate has passed the resolution, the House needs to pass the same clean version of the resolution to finally send it to the president's desk."
Peace Action is the United States' largest peace and disarmament organization with over 100,000 members and nearly 100 chapters in 34 states, works to achieve the abolition of nuclear weapons, promote government spending priorities that support human needs and encourage real security through international cooperation and human rights.
LATEST NEWS
'Five-Alarm Fire' as GOP House Speaker Tries to Ram Through Spying Bill
"Absentsignificant amendment, RISAA will do nothing to prevent the government's repeated abuses of Section 702 to spy on Americans," critics said.
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With just over a week left for the U.S. Congress to renew a major—and highly controversial—state surveillance program before it expires, privacy defenders on Tuesday warned that so-called "compromise" legislation is little more than a ploy to permanently reauthorize warrantless government spying on American citizens.
The Biden administration and members of Congress from both parties are seeking to extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which permits warrantless surveillance of non-U.S. citizens but also captures the communications of Americans.
Following a Tuesday markup session by the House Rules Committee and Wednesday consultations with intelligence officials, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is expected to call a vote on the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act (RISAA) on Thursday. The bill would reauthorize Section 702 for five years while enacting what supporters call a series of reforms meant to protect Americans against state surveillance.
"Absent significant amendment, RISAA will do nothing to prevent the government's repeated abuses of Section 702 to spy on Americans," said the Brennan Center for Justice, Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), and FreedomWorks in a joint statement.
Introduced in February by Rep. Laurel Lee (R-Fla.), RISAA would reauthorize what the congresswoman called "an indispensable tool that protects us from national security threats within the United States and abroad."
Congress passed a short-term extension of Section 702 last December, with lawmakers unable to agree on whether and how to reform the contentious law that has been abused hundreds of thousands of times, including to spy on protestors, congressional donors, journalists, and others.
RISAA is meant to be a compromise between the Protect Liberty and End Warrantless Surveillance Act and the FISA Reform and Reauthorization Act. The former bill was supported by privacy defenders, while the ACLU warned that the latter "would greatly expand the government's ability to spy on Americans without a warrant."
Proponents are touting RISAA's 56 purported reforms. Johnson asserted last week that the legislation "will establish new procedures to rein in the FBI, increase accountability at the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), impose penalties for wrongdoing, and institute unprecedented transparency across the FISA process so we no longer have to wait years to uncover potential abuses."
However, civil liberties defenders warn that many of RISAA's so-called reforms are little more than window dressing that preserve the status quo.
"Making 56 ineffective tweaks to a fundamentally broken law is not reforming it," said the Brennan Center, EPIC, and FreedomWorks.
Johnson had previously supported closing the so-called data broker loophole—which the government exploits to purchase sensitive information—and the backdoor search loophole, through which domestic law enforcement agencies can access Americans' communications without a warrant. While the House is expected to vote Thursday on an amendment to close the backdoor search loophole, lawmakers are also likely to vote on three FISA expansions and special protections that only apply to members of Congress.
"This is so disappointing—when Speaker Johnson was on the Judiciary Committee with me, he was in our coalition fighting for major FISA reforms to protect sensitive data. Now that he's speaker, he's folding to spy agencies who want to violate your privacy," Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) wrote on social media Tuesday.
Jayapal lamented that RISAA says the "FBI has to notify congressmembers to spy on us, but regular Americans can be spied on without a warrant?"
Demand Progress policy director Sean Vitka said in a statement, "In a truly staggering betrayal of public trust, Speaker Johnson is now not only sabotaging votes on overwhelmingly popular privacy protections for Americans, he is trying to ram through the Intelligence Committee's expansions of FISA."
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Pointing out a significant "disconnect" between the European Union's political class and the public regarding Israel's assault on Gaza, the top United Nations expert on the occupied Palestinian territories on Wednesday said E.U. officials must suspend trade relations with the Israeli government.
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Last week, Irish Social Democratic lawmaker Gary Gannon condemned the E.U. for not acting on Sánchez and Varadkar's demand.
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Time after time, the European Council refuses to trigger the humanitarian clauses of the EU's trade deal with Israel.
Its pathetic response to genocide is shameful and outrageous.
If Israel is not in breach of these clauses, we may as well rip them up, says @GaryGannonTDÂ pic.twitter.com/DJK4NL9rTh
— Social Democrats (@SocDems) April 2, 2024
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Gun control advocates, including families of mass shooting survivors, condemned Tennessee Senate Republicans for a 26-5 vote along party lines on Tuesday to advance legislation allowing teachers and staff to carry concealed firearms in public schools.
"Since the devastating shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville last year, the [Tennessee] Legislature has had the opportunity to take meaningful action on gun safety," said Moms Demand Action executive director Angela Ferrell-Zabala. "Instead, they have chosen to 'debate the safety of their communities' behind closed doors in a process that has often excluded their constituents and their own colleagues."
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\ud83d\udde3\ufe0f @SenatorLamar: \u201cTeachers don\u2019t even want this. This bill is dangerous... look at that gallery. Those mothers are asking you not to do this.\u201d\n\nWith a baby in her arms. Powerful. But every Senate Republican voted yes anyway, as troopers dragged out the moms above.— (@)
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During the Senate debate, gun reform advocates filled the gallery—though after several disruptions, Lt. Gov. Randy McNally (R-5) ordered state troopers to clear the area of all but a group of Covenant School mothers, according to The Tennessean.
Beth Gebhard, whose 9-year-old daughter Ava and 12-year-old son Hudson survived the Covenant shooting, opposes the bill. Clearing the Senate gallery was "cowardly," she told the newsaper. "If they are supposed to be representative of our voice and they are dismissing these people... they are not for us and it is appalling... It's so upsetting. It makes me want to move."
Linda McFadyen-Ketchum—a volunteer with the state chapter of Moms Demand Action who was dragged out of the gallery by law enforcement—argued that "we should be listening to Tennessee law enforcement, teachers, superintendents, and more who have spoke out against arming teachers."
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As Chalkbeatreported Tuesday, if a local school district and law enforcement agency agreed to the legislative proposal, sponsored by Tennessee Sen. Paul Bailey (R-15) and Rep. Ryan Williams (R-42), "interested teachers and school staff who have an enhanced handgun permit would have to complete 40 hours of certified training in school policing at their own expense."
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Gebhard told The Tennessean that she cannot imagine a teacher having to face a shooter armed with an assault-style rifle.
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