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The number of U.S. lawmakers vowing to ‘send a strong message to the Saudis’ is...

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The number of U.S. lawmakers vowing to ‘send a strong message to the Saudis’ is growing by the day

Ben Werschkul
·Washington Correspondent
Sat, October 15, 2022, 3:38 AM·4 min read

Nearly every day this week, a new lawmaker has lined up behind the growing effort to codify into law a fundamental rethinking of the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia.

On Monday, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), the influential head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released a statement calling for the US to “immediately freeze all aspects of our cooperation with Saudi Arabia.” Later in the week, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Rep. Ro Khanna released a bill to temporarily halt U.S. arms sales to the kingdom.

That bill would “send a strong message to the Saudis as our country works to rebalance this one-sided relationship” lawmakers say.

WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 12: Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Rep. Ro Khanna (C-CA) hold a news conference to discuss legislation that would temporarily halt U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia at the U.S. Capitol on October 12, 2022 in Washington, DC. Blumenthal and Khanna said the legislation is a reaction to Saudi Arabia agreeing with other OPEC countries to cut production of oil, which they say will help Russia in its war with Ukraine and make allies like the U.S. suffer at the gas pump.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) held a news conference Wednesday to discuss legislation that would temporarily halt U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The agitation for action comes after OPEC+ - led by Saudi Arabia - announced oil production cuts on Oct. 4 while Congress notably isn’t in session. Most lawmakers are currently at home focused on the looming midterm elections.

As Ole Hansen, Saxo Bank Head of Commodity Strategy, said recently on Yahoo Finance about the U.S. and international positioning “we are seeing politics playing a greater part in this oil market” right now as players are “still trying to work out what really happened last week in the OPEC+ meeting.”

While lawmakers aren’t scheduled to return to Washington until Nov. 14, action from the White House might come sooner with President Biden saying in a CNN interview this week “there will be consequences” for Saudi Arabia. On Thursday Biden teased some sort of White House action on gas prices in the coming days, though it’s unclear if next week’s move will concern Saudi Arabia directly.

White House Council of Economic Advisers member Jared Bernstein underlined the point in a Yahoo Finance Live interview Thursday saying “we have to do more, especially in the light of this misguided and, I think, a very wrong-headed decision by OPEC+.”

A range of ideas for action

Back on Capitol Hill, the list of lawmakers prodding for action has grown.

Additional calls in recent days have come from figures like Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ), and more. Malinowski is leading their own effort to mandate the removal of U.S. troops and missile defense systems from Saudi Arabia as well as from the United Arab Emirates.


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