By Karoun Demirjian and Missy Ryan @ WashingtonPost.com, May 23

Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill are urging President Trump not to go over Congress’s head to complete controversial arms sales to Saudi Arabia and other countries amid concerns that he may soon use his emergency powers to sidestep lawmakers’ power to check such deals.

Lawmakers and human rights advocates are anticipating that the administration may exploit a legal window that permits the president to circumvent congressional roadblocks, or “holds,” on proposed arms sales. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has placed such a hold on a planned sale of precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia, over concerns that the weapons may be used against civilian targets in war-torn Yemen.

Such holds are common, and Republicans and Democrats have placed them on arms sales to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other Persian Gulf countries in recent years. Presidents have seldom exploited their emergency powers to work around them — and the prospect that Trump may try to blow through several objections to such arms sales has alarmed lawmakers, who are anxious to protect their authority to have a say on the executive branch’s ability to export lethal weaponry to foreign actors [....]