Tulsi Gabbard

Madam Speaker, right now, the United States continues to support Saudi Arabia's genocidal war in Yemen. This support has been ongoing since 2015 yet has never been authorized by Congress. It must end now.

U.S. support for this war has resulted in dire consequences. Just last week, the Saudi coalition bombed a hospital. They have bombed school buses, weddings, markets, funerals--tens of thousands of Yemen civilians killed. Millions more are in dire need of humanitarian aid, starving and sick, without access to food and water or basic medicine. This has created the worst humanitarian disaster in the world.

We are voting later today on an important resolution to finally end U.S. support for Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen. We need to put politics aside. Lives are at stake. We cannot afford to delay.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to recognize the urgency with which we must act, to vote against any attempts to delay or block this resolution, and to vote to pass S.J. Res. 7 today.

Mr. Speaker, today in Yemen, there are millions of Yemeni people who are on the brink of death from famine and disease, lack of access to food and water, basic medicine and healthcare.

Thousands of Yemeni civilians have died in this genocidal war being waged by Saudi Arabia with support from the United States. They have been living under the looming threat of death at a moment's notice.

This must end. Not another day can go by with U.S. support for this genocidal war.

Saudi Arabia is not our ally. They spend billions of dollars spreading the Wahhabi-Salafist ideology that fuels terrorist organizations like ISIS and al-Qaida. They take the weapons that they get from the United States and provide them to al-Qaida.

Enough is enough.

Mr. Speaker, today, the Senate is taking an important vote, and I urge my colleagues in the Senate to hear the pleas of the Yemeni people who are begging for their lives. Vote today to end the unconstitutional U.S. support for Saudi Arabia's genocidal war in Yemen.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of my friend, Congressman Walter Jones, Jr., a man who was known by all of us throughout his many years serving in this chamber for his kindness, his southern charm, and his big heart, his fierce independence, and his pursuit of peace.

Walter left us on February 10, his 76th birthday. He lived a long life of service: four years in the North Carolina National Guard, ten years in the North Carolina General Assembly, and nearly 25 years serving in these halls.

Walter stayed true to himself throughout this time, following his heart. He was never afraid to challenge the status quo, often to the chagrin of his party leaders.

We found a common bond and friendship around shared ideals, of putting people before politics, putting service above self. He knew that when we see each other as people, as public servants, not just as Republicans and Democrats that this is when we have the opportunity to find common ground and work toward our common goal of serving the people of this country.

Now, in 2002, Walter voted for the Iraq war, the war that I served in, the war that took the lives of my brothers and sisters in uniform, the war that took the lives of over 4,000 U.S. servicemembers and over 100,000 Iraqis.

Walter shared with me, as he shared with many others, that this vote that he took was the biggest regret of his time in public service.

He shared how when he attended a funeral at Camp Lejeune for a 31- year-old marine that was killed in Iraq in March of 2003 while evacuating wounded troops, everything changed for Walter, because he sat there and he heard this marine's widow, in front of their three children, read the final letter that this marine sergeant sent home, and he saw those three kids, knowing that they would never see their father again.

This impacted him so deeply, and maybe for the first time caused him to realize the cost of war and who pays the price. So Walter started writing. He wrote over 12,000 letters to families who lost their loved ones in both Iraq and Afghanistan and shared how he begged God to forgive him for his mistake.

He memorialized those who died from North Carolina's Camp Lejeune, as you see here, with photos that he displayed for all to see before they could come inside his office here in Washington.

He became a leading voice not just in his party, but in Congress, pushing for additional oversight over matters of war and peace. He called for ending illegal regime-change wars that put our troops' lives on the line, leaving their families behind. He pointed out that our taxpayer dollars should not be used to be the policeman of the world.

Walter and I didn't agree on many things, but we also found many opportunities to work together on things that we strongly believed in.

We cosponsored and co-led the No More Presidential Wars Act, which rightly put the responsibility back in Congress' hands to declare war, as the Constitution provides.

He cosponsored my bill, the Stop Arming Terrorists Act, to make sure that taxpayer dollars are not being used to directly and indirectly fund terrorist groups, as we have seen done in both Syria and Yemen.

We cosponsored the Weekend Voting Act to strengthen voting rights.

We worked together to strengthen civil liberties and privacy, upholding our Fourth Amendment rights.

Walter was courageous. He didn't care about party politics, and as a result, he suffered the consequences in tough primary elections, but he didn't care. He never hesitated to stand up for what he believed in.

So while Walter and I were two very different people coming from two very different places, Walter was my dear friend, fellow servicemember, and my brother. He will be deeply missed.

My heart and prayers go out to his family, his friends, and his loved ones.

We all know that Walter's legacy of service and his principles and values will continue to live on in Washington, in the Halls of Congress, and in the lives of the many people who he touched.