Speaker Johnson Statement on Biden Administration’s New Designation of Houthis

January 17, 2024

Contact: Taylor Haulsee

WASHINGTON — Speaker Mike Johnson released the following statement after the Biden Administration announced they are labeling the Houthis as a Specially Designated Terrorist Group (SDTG). In 2021, the Biden Administration removed the Houthis’ designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). The SDTG designation carries weaker restrictions and penalties than an FTO designation.

When he was Chairman of the Republican Study Committee in 2020, Johnson joined Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC-2) to become the first Members of Congress to call for the Houthis to be designated as an FTO.

Speaker Johnson said, “The Iran-backed Houthi rebels are an extremist terrorist organization backed by the world’s leading state-sponsor of terrorism. The Houthis are seeking to disrupt the international economic system, attacking civilian commercial ships, including American vessels, in the Red Sea, and launching rockets at American military service members. If this isn’t the definition of a Foreign Terrorist Organization, I don’t know what it is.

“President Biden and Secretary Blinken’s decision to remove the FTO designation on the Houthis was a dangerous example of this administration’s weakness and poor judgement. Their decision today not to redesignate the Houthis as an FTO amounts to continued appeasement of Iran and is emblematic of how this administration has been wrong on nearly every national security issue to date. I urge the President to change course and treat the Houthis as the extremist terrorists they are.”

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