Senate Republicans voted down a resolution Wednesday that would have limited President Donald Trump’s war powers on Iran, giving him the go-ahead to continue a deadly military campaign in the country without congressional approval.
The bipartisan measure, led by Sens. Tim Kaine and Rand Paul, failed 47 to 53. Other than Paul, all Republicans opposed it. Democratic Sen. John Fetterman also voted “no.”
The vote was Congress’ first major test of Trump’s legal power after he launched a military campaign against Iran over the weekend, which the Trump administration says was necessary to stop what it described as an imminent threat. The war powers resolution would have required the president to seek permission from Congress before continuing hostilities against Iran.
The resolution was doomed to fail well before Wednesday’s vote, with key swing votes saying they would oppose it ahead of the vote. Fetterman, who supported past efforts to limit Trump’s war powers on Venezuela, said in the days leading up to the Iran vote that he was a “no.” Republican Sens. Josh Hawley and Todd Young, who briefly helped advance a Venezuela war powers effort before backing off, also made it clear ahead of time that they would oppose the Iran measure.
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“This is different than Venezuela, because the context is different,” Young told NOTUS on Wednesday. “A war has started. We’re engaged in war against a very dangerous regime, and if we were to withdraw support immediately, this could be quite dangerous to our troops, to friends and partners in the region and conceivably even to the homeland.”
Sens. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, two of the few Republicans who never backed off on Venezuela, were noncommittal heading into this week, leaving supporters little room to find the votes they needed.
“The president needs to build the case, and the Congress needs to demand that he and his administration address just that,” Murkowski told NOTUS. “Our reality is that we’ve got troops that are in a combat position, they need our support. We need to be unified in our support of them. But we’ve got a role here in Congress, and I don’t want today’s vote to be interpreted that I don’t think that Congress has a role. Not by a long shot.”
Iran is “the leading sponsor of terrorism in the world and has been responsible for the murder of many Americans,” Collins told reporters after her vote against the resolution.
The administration has argued that it met its legal obligations by notifying congressional leaders ahead of the strikes and briefing lawmakers afterward. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other senior officials briefed members of Congress on Tuesday, with Democrats leaving the session raising more questions and concerns, and Republicans largely saying they were convinced the strike was necessary and the president acted within his authority as commander in chief, with some calling the war powers resolution outright “unconstitutional.”
Still, even some Republicans have cautioned against sending troops on the ground, saying a ground war would cross a different line and Congress should weigh in.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Wednesday that ground troops are “not part of the current plan, but I’m not going to remove an option for the president that is on the table.”
Trump has not ruled out that option, and he has also signaled that the campaign could stretch well beyond the initial timeline.
“Whatever the time is, it’s OK, whatever it takes,” he said Monday, adding that while the administration projected four to five weeks, the U.S. could go “far longer than that.”
Six U.S. service members have been killed so far, and Trump has said more American deaths are likely.
A similar war powers resolution in the House, led by Republican Rep. Thomas Massie and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, is expected for a vote Thursday and is likely to fail, as many Democrats have already said they will oppose the measure.
Six moderate House Democrats introduced an alternative war powers resolution that would require U.S. operations in Iran to end within 30 days unless Congress authorizes them, offering a narrower approach than the Massie-Khanna measure that would require an immediate withdrawal. It’s not yet clear when the alternate war powers resolution could receive a vote.
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