Senate Intelligence Committee Codel To Travel To Middle East Tomorrow

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) has told reporters that she will depart the US this evening ahead a bipartisan Congressional delegation (codel) of Senate Intelligence Committee members to the Middle East to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and officials in Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

• Ryan Schmelz at Fox News reports that Gillibrand, "says she wants to get an update from Israel's military on the status of Hamas and the strategy for creating a "path towards peace.""
• The codel comes as tensions in the region continue to escalate and President Biden receives pushback from progressive Democrats over a decision to bypass Congress to transfer weapons to Israel.
• Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), a regular critic of executive war powers said of Biden's decision to invoke emergency authority to provide a USD$147 mln weapons package to Israel: “Unnecessarily bypassing Congress means keeping the American people in the dark. We need a public explanation of the rationale behind this decision — the second such decision this month.”