Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul intends to introduce legislation Wednesday that will force a vote on President Donald Trump's $110 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia. The legislation will allow Paul to hold a vote in early June to disapprove the funding, according to The Hill.
Paul said that he fears that the sale of weapons to the Saudis will pull the U.S. in the Yemeni civil war and add to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the region. The senator will attempt to use the 1976 Arms Export Control Act, which allows a senator to force a vote on halting arms sales overseas.
The arms being sold in the deal include tanks, artillery, radar systems, armored personnel carriers, and Blackhawk helicopters, as well as ships, patrol boats, Patriot missiles, and THAAD missile defense systems, according to Time.
According to Politico, Paul will be joined in the resolution by Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, who joined Paul in a similar bill in September 2016 that attempted to block an Obama administration approved $1.15 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia. The resolution was overwhelmingly shot down in a 71-26 vote in the Senate.
Murphy tweeted Wednesday that, unlike the 2016 attempt to block the Saudi arms sale, this resolution will not seek to block the whole bill, but only "target munitions" that are being used against Yemeni forces.
According to the United Nations, the death toll in the war between Yemen and Saudi Arabia has reached 10,000. These deaths include the bombing of a Yemeni funeral that killed over 100 people, and wounded hundreds of others.
