FCNL in the News

The Founders carefully constructed a system of checks and balances on decisions over war and peace, which has completely broken down. The biggest foreign policy choice of all — going to war — now lies with just one man.

“There are new members of Congress, new voices on this issue and they are doing this because they are hearing from their constituents,” says Kate Gould, legislative director for Middle East Policy at the Quaker lobby group.

With the recent escalation of the war in Syria, it is clear that Congress needs to demonstrate their leadership and pass the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act (H.R.3030; S.1158).

Thursday is Yom HaShoah – or Holocaust Remembrance Day – which honors the memory of the six million Jews who perished during World War II. The remembrance of this genocide underscores that there is much more we need to do to make good on our commitment “never again” to allow such atrocities to take place.

“We saw leadership divided” on the Democratic side, said Kate Gould, the Middle East legislative policy director at the Friends Committee on National Legislation. “We still had 44 senators that took the step not just of blocking a bomb sale, but of [considering] actually withdrawing U.S. armed forces from the conflict altogether, despite the fact that the Pentagon and the Saudis were really trying to scare senators.”

Theo Sitther was interviewed by CQ Roll Call about a provision in the Omnibus spending bill requiring DOD to update Congress on whether U.S. arms sales have contributed to human rights violations abroad.

“Under this legislation, no longer would U.S. pilots serve as gas station attendants in the sky to refuel Saudi and UAE bombers that rein down terror on Yemeni men, women and children,” said Kate Gould, of the anti-war advocacy group Friends Committee on National Legislation.

The “2001 AUMF,” said Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), “has become a blank check for any president to wage war anytime, anywhere, anyplace without the consent or oversight of Congress.”

When I was 6 years old, my mother, three siblings, and I fled Iran during the Iran-Iraq war, seeking refuge in America. We had no way of knowing then that a president of the United States would one day create a dense web of policies that I think specifically target Iranians and Muslims. We knew only that my fifteen-year-old brother would soon be drafted and sent into battle to die.

“The two of them working together is certainly going to attract a lot of media attention and there’s been a lot of grassroots support for this issue,” said Kate Gould, the legislative director for Middle East Policy at the Friends Committee on National Legislation, a Quaker lobby.