Lawmakers Seek Emergency War Powers Vote After Trump Launches Iran Operation

Lawmakers who had been trying to block President Donald Trump from striking Iran are now demanding an emergency vote after he moved ahead with a sweeping military operation early Saturday.

Within hours of Trump announcing that U.S. forces were carrying out what he called “major combat operations,” Sen. Tim Kaine and Rep. Ro Khanna, who are leading the war powers push in the Senate and House, called on Congress to immediately reconvene and vote on their resolutions.

“These strikes are a colossal mistake, and I pray they do not cost our sons and daughters in uniform and at embassies throughout the region their lives,” Kaine said.

“The Senate should immediately return to session and vote on my War Powers Resolution to block the use of U.S. forces in hostilities against Iran. Every single Senator needs to go on the record about this dangerous, unnecessary, and idiotic action,” he added.

Trump said the strikes began just after 1 a.m. ET, after Israel struck first, and targeted Iran’s nuclear, missile and naval programs. Strikes were also reported in Tehran.

Iran retaliated soon after, including with reported drone attacks on Israel and strikes elsewhere in the region, including at a U.S. Navy base in Bahrain. Iranian officials warned bases assisting Israel would be targeted, and a militia allied with Iran said it would attack American bases.

The strikes come amid tension in Congress — mostly from Democrats — over the Trump administration’s interventions abroad and what critics say is a failure to properly keep lawmakers informed. The administration has repeatedly said it doesn’t need congressional approval for its actions, including fatal attacks on boats in the Caribbean, deposing Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and now strikes on Iran.

In this case, a White House official said Secretary of State Marco Rubio “laid out the situation and consulted” the Gang of Eight ahead of the strikes, and called its members to give them a heads up, speaking to seven of them. Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune both spoke to Rubio, sources confirmed, as did the two top Democrats on Intelligence, Sen. Mark Warner and Rep. Jim Himes. House Intelligence Committee Chair Rick Crawford was briefed before the strikes took place, another source told NOTUS.

Rubio called House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, but it’s unclear if they spoke, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The Department of Defense “also provided notifications to Armed Services Committees early this morning after strikes had commenced,” the White House official told NOTUS.

In a statement, Thune thanked Rubio “for providing updates on these issues throughout the week.”

Thune also suggested more to come: “I look forward to administration officials briefing all senators about these military operations.”

Warner said the scale of the operation and the president’s own words prove there should have been congressional approval.

“By the president’s own words, ‘American heroes may be lost.’ That alone should have demanded the highest level of scrutiny, deliberation, and accountability, yet the president moved forward without seeking congressional authorization,” he said in a statement.

Warner added that “Congress must be fully briefed, and the administration must come forward with a clear legal justification, a defined end state, and a plan that avoids dragging the United States into yet another costly and unnecessary war.”

Khanna responded by calling for an immediate vote on his bipartisan resolution with Republican Rep. Thomas Massie. “We don’t want to be at war with a country of 90 million people in the Middle East,” he said in a video. “Every member of Congress must go on record today on how they will vote on Thomas Massie and my war powers resolution.”

Massie said the strikes were “not ‘America First.’” He added that when Congress is back in session next week, he will work with Khanna “to force a Congressional vote on war with Iran.”

“The Constitution requires a vote, and your Representative needs to be on record as opposing or supporting this war,” Massie said.

Democrats quickly joined the call.

“Tim is right. Strikes are underway and Congress hasn’t voted. No President gets to drag working-class Americans into another war without authorization. Bring the Senate back. Take the vote,” said Sen. Ruben Gallego wrote on X.

Sen. Ed Markey framed the moment as the consequence of abandoning diplomacy, noting Trump ended the Iran Deal negotiated under President Barack Obama.

“This is the cost of his broken promises,” Markey said. “No war with Iran.”

At least one Democrat is backing the strikes. Rep. Greg Landsman told NOTUS that he does not support Khanna’s war powers resolution, saying that it “would require us to completely abandon our allies. It calls for the immediate removal of defensive weapons in the region.”

He also commended the administration for reaching out to the Gang of Eight, calling it a “return to what previous administrations have done.”

Republicans framed the strikes as necessary to eliminate the Iranian threat.

Sen. Roger Wicker, the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, backed the operation and echoed the administration’s stated goals.

“This is a pivotal and necessary operation to protect Americans and American interests. The President has stated the operation’s goals clearly: thwart permanently the ayatollahs’ desire to create a nuclear weapon, degrade their ballistic missile force and their production capacity, and destroy their naval and terrorism capabilities.”

Rep. Don Bacon, who has broken with the president on war powers in the past, voiced his support for the strikes.

“I hate war, but Iran has been at war with us,” he told NOTUS. “After the regime just murdered approximately 50,000 Iranians, it is time to help the Iranian people get rid of the Ayatollah once and for all.”

This article has been updated with additional comments.