White House Releases Letter Informing Congress of Houthi Strikes
Citing the War Powers Resolution, the letter notifies Congress of U.S. military actions taken in Yemen at the direction of the president.
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On April 22, the White House released a document entitled “Text of a Letter from the President to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate.” The letter, dated March 28, summarizes recent events in Yemen, including “piratical aggressions against shipping” and attacks on “U.S. forces in airspace and waters in and around Yemen.”
The letter asserts that the president “will no longer allow this band of pirates to threaten and attack United States forces and commercial vessels in one of the most important shipping lanes in the world.” The letter subsequently outlines several of the Department of Defense’s actions, including “the movement of additional forces equipped for combat into the Middle East to enhance the defensive capabilities available to United States forces and facilitate necessary military actions” and the commencement of “large-scale strikes in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen to eliminate the capabilities the Houthis use for attacks on United States forces and commercial ships in the Red Sea and surrounding waters.”
The letter cites the War Powers Resolution, invoking it as a basis for informing Congress, and indicates that President Trump directed this action “pursuant to my constitutional authority as Commander in Chief and Chief Executive to conduct United States foreign relations.”
The War Powers Resolution stipulates that the president must notify Congress within 48 hours of military action undertaken without congressional authorization. However, the strikes the president alludes to in the letter began on March 15.
You can read the letter here or below:
