Senators seek US withdrawal from Yemen fights
US lawmakers have unveiled plans to use a law passed decades ago to vote in the Senate to pull the country out of the war in Yemen. Republican Senators Mike Leigh and independent Bernie Sanders and Democrat Chris Murphy said on Wednesday they would make their first attempt to use a clause in the 1973 War Powers Act to allow any council member to put a resolution on withdrawing US armed forces from a conflict in which Congress has not been authorized . The move by the three lawmakers is the latest action in a continuing battle between Congress and the White House over control of military conflict affairs. "We believe that this conflict (in Yemen) is unconstitutional and unauthorized, because Congress has not declared war or authorized the use of military force," Sanders told a news conference. Legislators have argued for years that Congress has given too much power to the White House. Under the constitution, Congress, not the president, has the authority to declare war. But divisions over control of the Pentagon have hampered efforts to issue new mandates for the war.
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