On April 11, 2019 Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) introduced a Senate Resolution condemning human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia. As justification, the bill lists a series of recent controversies involving the Kingdom, including the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, detention of women activists, humanitarian consequences of the war in Yemen, criminalization of homosexuality and torture, among others. The resolution invokes subsection (a)(2) of section 502b of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, which iterates American security assistance should not be provided to nations that are suspected of such abuses. The text of the bill directly blames Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.