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Progressives Push to Assert Congress Power Over Yemen War

Matt SledgeApril 9 2025, 12:53 p.m.

Progressives in Congress demanded that President Donald Trump justify his legal rationale for strikes in Yemen that caused dozens of deaths, teeing up a potential move to stop future attacks under the 1973 War Powers Act.

Democrats would face long odds invoking congressional war powers to block Trump as long as Republicans control Congress, but a letter sent to the White House on Wednesday and obtained by The Intercept represents a break from the party’s approach to the attacks against Yemen. Until now, Democrats have centered their critiques on the scandal over the administration’s planning of a March 16 strike on the Signal messaging app.

“We call on your Administration to immediately cease unauthorized use of military force.”

While progressives are still worried about the Trump administration’s slipshod information security, they are also deeply concerned about what is happening in Yemen, says the letter led by Reps. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash.; Ro Khanna, D-Calif.; and Val Hoyle, D-Ore., who were joined by 30 members.

“While we share concerns about maritime security in the Red Sea,” the representatives wrote, “we call on your Administration to immediately cease unauthorized use of military force and instead seek specific statutory authorization from Congress before involving the U.S. in an unconstitutional conflict in the Middle East, which risks endangering U.S. military personnel in the region and escalating into a regime-change war.”

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Trump is under no obligation to respond to the letter. His administration has brushed aside critiques of the strikes’ planning while touting the strikes themselves as a victory — despite signs that they have done little to deter the Houthis, the group ruling most of Yemen whose attacks in protest of Israel’s war on Gaza have halted much of the maritime traffic through the Red Sea.

The letter could lay the groundwork for a push from Democrats to end or curtail future strikes on Yemen.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Years of Wrangling on Yemen

The progressives’ letter is not the first attempt in recent years to assert Congress’s powers over U.S. involvement in Yemen’s long-running, brutal war.

In 2019, after a yearslong push from progressives such as Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Congress passed a bipartisan measure under the War Powers Resolution meant to end the U.S. government’s support for Saudi Arabia’s bloody intervention in the Yemeni civil war. The Senate failed to override Trump’s veto of that legislation.

President Joe Biden continued U.S. involvement in the crisis in Yemen, launching strikes directed against military locations in response to Houthi attacks, which the group has said will continue until the end of the Gaza war.

The strikes on densely packed urban areas in Yemen last month were an escalation from Biden’s more contained attacks. Leaked messages from the administration Signal chat showed the war planners were aware of attacks on civilian targets, and there were internal concerns from Trump administration officials skeptical of foreign military interventions, such as Vice President JD Vance.

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The progressives’ letter says the law requires presidents to go to Congress to receive either a declaration of war or other statutory authorization. The only exception is for a “national emergency” involving an invasion — a situation the letter signatories note does not exist.

The letter asks the Trump administration to give its legal justification for the strikes; to explain its response to the potential national security breach of the Signal messages sent to Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg; to estimate the costs of the strikes and explain how the administration will pay for them; and to explain why a top general claimed that there had been “no indications of any civilian casualties” during an airstrike that left dozens dead.

“What steps, if any, are being taken to mitigate further civilian casualties?” the letter writers ask.

The letter drew support from a coalition of progressive and anti-war groups including the American Friends Service Committee, Codepink, Demand Progress, the National Iranian American Council, the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, and Win Without War.

“Trump’s deadly, unauthorized strikes violate the War Powers Act and the Constitution, and talk of reigniting a U.S.-Saudi backed ground war in Yemen threatens another looming disaster and endless war,” Demand Progress senior policy adviser Cavan Kharrazian said in a statement. “It’s critical that hostilities stop and Congress reassert its role — just as the leads of this letter have called for under both Trump and Biden.”