i am simon henderson and this is patrick. it is available on the washingtoninstitute.org. thanks also to dr. helima craft for her part in the discussion here. thank you very much. [applause] digital copies are available also. if you would like to pick one up, please, do. >> with the house and senate returning from summer break next week join us at 8 eastern. we will preview four key issues. . federal funding to combat zika virus. >> women in america want to have the ability to not get pregnant because the mosquito ravage pregnant women. >> but today they turned down the very money they argued for last may and decided to gamble with the lives of children like this. >> the annual defense policy and programs bill: >> all of these folks are very vital to the future of this nation and at a time of turmoil and a time of the greatest number of refuges since the end of world war ii. >> gun violence legislation and criminal justice reform. >> every member of this body, every republican and democrat, wants to see less gun violence. >> we must continue to work the work of non-violenc

simon henderson wrote in "the wall street journal," he said that the chaos and violence in yemen is such that it would be an improvement to call it a civil war. it is hard to know who is friend and foe. even our former ambassador to syria has said in syria, it's almost impossible to know friend from foe. but people have written repeatedly that saudi weapons in syria have gone to the wrong people. it's not like whoops, saudi arabia is sometimes wrong and they're not that bad. they have a horrific human rights record. there are people who believe them to be complicit in 9/11. this body voted unanimously to let the 9/11 victims sue them, and now this body wants to give them weapons. does no one sense the irony? so as we move forward on this vote, everyone should understand that this is a proxy vote for whether we should be at war in the middle east because neither side, the leadership on neither side will allow a vote on whether or not we should authorize force. neither side will let the constitutional debate occur on whether or not we should be at war. i see my colleague from connecticut.