Some Senate Democrats are warming to the Trump administration’s decision to reimpose a Foreign Terrorist Organization designation for the Iran-backed Houthi terrorist group in Yemen — a move that the Biden administration refused to make throughout its term after previously delisting the group as terrorists in 2021 — while others remain skeptical.

A growing number of Democrats last year came to support the elevated terrorist designation for the group as Houthi attacks on Israel, U.S. forces and shipping vessels in the Red Sea escalated. The Trump administration issued an executive order in January that sought to reimpose the designation and formally took the step this week. The Biden administration applied a different terrorist label but the FTO designation would have granted additional authorities. 

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), a longtime supporter of redesignating the group, offered his full endorsement of the move.

“I support that,” Fetterman told JI. “And if his [Trump’s] next Truth Social post is about wasting them, I’d support that too. I think it’s time to really cut the s**t and take them out if they’re going to mess with our ships and have an impact on our economy like that, absolutely. They are terrorists, undeniably. I fully support destroying that organization, what’s left of it.”

Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) said that “the previous debate about whether they should or shouldn’t be so designated really had to do with the ability to deliver humanitarian aid in the middle of what was then a massive crisis in Yemen.”

“They certainly have done plenty of things that deserve the designation,” Coons continued. “That doesn’t trouble me.”

Coons had opposed the Trump administration’s decision in early January 2021 to initially designate the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said she thinks the U.S. should have sanctions on the Houthis but didn’t directly address the FTO designation.

Others, such as Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), remain skeptical.

Kaine said that he found the timing of the move to be “kind of interesting, because the Houthis have stopped firing on U.S. shipping in the Red Sea, which they said they would do if there was a cease-fire, which has been great.”

“We’ve got to extend the cease-fire so that continues, because we have been so freakishly lucky. We were batting 1.000 while knocking down all the drones and the missiles [in the Red Sea],” Kaine told JI. “They are a terrorist organization, but they’ve stopped firing on U.S. shipping. We want them to continue not to, so I felt like the timing was a little bizarre.”

Kaine, who serves on the Foreign Relations and Senate Armed Services committees, said he was concerned that the reauthorization could prompt the Houthis to reengage on that front, even if the cease-fire and hostage-release deal between Israel and Hamas remains intact.

“If they started to behave badly again we could always reimpose the designation, and maybe they’d start firing again even with the cease-fire,” Kaine said. “But we’re in a moment where they dramatically scaled back what they were doing. I’m not sure that’s the time to punish somebody when they’ve started for some reason to do the right thing.”

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) told JI that the Houthis are a terrorist organization, and were already labeled as such under a different designation.

“The question is how we treat them as a terrorist organization without making them stronger,” Murphy said. “The question is whether this particular designation makes it so impossible for us to provide famine relief inside Yemen that it actually grows the Houthis’ power.”

He said that the designation “doesn’t help us if the consequences result in a group getting stronger,” and that he wants to ensure the delivery of humanitarian support that can “blunt some of the reasons why people sign up to fight with the Houthis.”

Republicans, meanwhile, celebrated the move.

Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said in a post on X on Wednesday, “I’m glad to see the Administration sanction Houthi leaders for their terrorist activity and weapons trafficking. Now, we need to cut Chinese support for the Houthis. China purposefully undercuts U.S. sanctions and serves as a lifeline for Iran and its terror groups. This needs to end.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said the decision was “long overdue” and that he was “glad he [Trump] did it.”

“In the name of avoiding escalation, every time Democrats try to do that, you get more of it,” Graham said. “Here’s what I think: if they keep shooting at our ships, wipe them out. They use the same logic — don’t give them tanks, don’t give them planes — in Ukraine. You just get more escalations,” Graham said of the criticism from the other side of the aisle. 

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) said she was “completely” in support of the Houthi’s FTO status being reinstated and was not concerned about such a decision escalating the situation in the Red Sea. 

“My goodness, when you look at what the Houthis have already done, in firing missiles nonstop at our commercial traffic in the Red Sea and at destroyers. They are definitely a terrorist organization. From my perspective, they’re an Iranian proxy,” Collins told JI. “I’m glad that they’ve been reclassified.”