This legislation (Senate Joint Resolution 39) would block the proposed $1.15 billion sale of tanks and other military equipment to Saudi Arabia. Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who sponsored S. J. Res. 39, said prior to the vote that the debate should not just be about whether to “sell arms to Saudi Arabia,” but whether to “sell arms to Saudi Arabia for the war in Yemen,” where presumably the tanks would be used.
The Senate did not vote directly on S. J. Res. 39; it voted instead to table (kill) a motion to discharge S. J. Res. 39 from committee, thereby effectively killing the bill. The vote, on September 21, 2016, was 71 to 27 (Roll Call 145). We have assigned pluses to the nays because the United States should not interject itself in foreign conflicts such as the civil war in Yemen, and should not take steps tantamount to going to war without congressional debate and a declaration of war by Congress.
