I 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2795 
To increase coordination among relevant Federal departments and agencies 
to address United States security and humanitarian interests in Yemen, 
and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JUNE 7, 2017 
Ms. BASS (for herself, Mr. CROWLEY, Ms. LEE, Mr. MEEKS, Mr. RICHMOND, 
and Ms. JACKSON LEE) introduced the following bill; which was referred 
to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committee 
on Armed Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the 
Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within 
the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To increase coordination among relevant Federal depart-
ments and agencies to address United States security 
and humanitarian interests in Yemen, and for other pur-
poses. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Yemen Security and 
Humanity Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) Yemen, a country that has been plagued by 
violence and insurgency for many years, has been 
locked in a devastating civil war since 2015. 
(2) In April 2017, the World Food Programme 
announced that Yemen is on the brink of ‘‘full-scale 
famine’’ and classified approximately 7,000,000 
Yemenis, including 2,200,000 children, as ‘‘severely 
food insecure’’. 
(3) Although many factors account for the fam-
ine conditions in Yemen, including years of govern-
ment mismanagement, corruption, and natural dis-
asters, the World Food Programme indicates that 
the impact of the conflict—including the destruction 
of public services, infrastructure, transport, and 
Yemen’s economy—is having a significant impact on 
Yemen’s food insecurity. 
(4) According to the United Nations Inter-
national Children’s Emergency Fund, a Yemeni 
child dies every ten minutes, on average, from mal-
nutrition, diarrhea, or respiratory tract infections. 
(5) Disease, war, and desperate poverty in 
Yemen threaten United States core values and stra-
tegic priorities for combating global terror. 
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(6) According to the January 2014 ‘‘Worldwide 
Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Commu-
nity’’— 
(A) a ‘‘[l]ack of adequate food will be a de-
stabilizing factor in countries important to US 
national security that do not have the financial 
or technical abilities to solve their internal food 
security problems’’; and 
(B) ‘‘[f]ood and nutrition insecurity in 
weakly governed countries might also provide 
opportunities for insurgent groups to capitalize 
on poor conditions, exploit international food 
aid, and discredit governments for their inabil-
ity to address basic needs’’. 
(7) Yemen imports 90 percent of its food, a 
majority of which enters the country through the 
port of Hodeida, currently a Houthi-controlled city. 
(8) In response to the August 2015 bombing of 
the port of Hodeida, the United States Agency for 
International Development funded, in part, the re-
placement of port cranes destroyed in the bombing, 
though the replacements have not been delivered be-
cause of current conditions on the ground despite 
being essential to accelerate the rapid delivery of 
food from the port. 
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(9) Relief organizations are concerned that the 
closure of the port of Hodeida for any reason could 
further exacerbate famine in Yemen because the ma-
jority of humanitarian aid enters the country 
through that port. 
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
It is the sense of Congress that— 
(1) effectively addressing the famine conditions 
in Yemen is in the national security interests of the 
United States; 
(2) interventions supported by the United 
States to advance national security should also con-
sider the impact of military engagement on humani-
tarian operations in such regions; and 
(3) bureaucratic procedures with respect to hu-
manitarian aid must be urgently improved and expe-
dited to allow for an expansion of the scale of the 
humanitarian operations providing such aid. 
SEC. 4. COORDINATION IN FAMINE-RISK AREAS. 
Section 5(a) of the Global Food Security Act of 2016 
(22 U.S.C. 9304(a)) is amended— 
(1) in paragraph (16), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the 
end; 
(2) in paragraph (17), by striking the period at 
the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 
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