Iran War Powers Resolution Fails in the Senate

An attempt to claw back congressional authority over waging wars fell short in the Senate on Friday night, with a vote of 53-47.

Republicans overwhelmingly sided with President Donald Trump in voting down the resolution, although one — Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky — voted with most Democrats in favor of it. Sen. John Fetterman, a Democrat, joined Republicans in opposing it.

The resolution is the latest failed effort on Capitol Hill to insist that Congress’ constitutional role in declaring war should supersede the president’s role as commander in chief of the military.

“War is too big to be decided by one person,” Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat and longtime congressional war-powers hawk, said on Friday ahead of the vote.

The resolution would have required Trump to cease hostilities in Iran absent congressional approval, after the president attacked Iranian nuclear facilities last weekend.

“The United States should not be at war with Iran, but if there is to be such a war, it should be only one that is debated on and voted on by Congress,” Kaine told NOTUS in an interview earlier this month. “Not a presidential initiation of an offensive war without congressional approval.”

It’s not clear just how successful Trump’s strike was in destroying Iran’s nuclear program. Senators said after a briefing Thursday afternoon that the United States could find itself turning to diplomacy and future military action if Iran works to rebuild.

Kaine’s resolution may have won more support if Trump’s move had been a more sustained military operation rather than what seems to have been a one-time attack. Trump’s strikes “didn’t start a war,” Sen. Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, a Republican, said ahead of the vote. “They ended a war.”

“This resolution, if passed, would send a dangerous message,” he said. “This resolution would signal that America’s resolve can be hamstrung by congressional hesitation.”

The conflict may not be over, though: Trump on Friday warned that if Iran enriches uranium that could be weaponized, he would consider bombing the country again, “without a question.”

The Constitution gives Congress the authority to declare war, but designates the president as commander in chief of the armed forces, a balance of power that has prompted clashes between lawmakers and presidents from both parties through the decades. A Vietnam War-era resolution set a timeline for presidents to follow in involving Congress in these decisions, requiring that presidents remove troops if 60 days have passed after entering hostilities abroad without lawmakers approving American involvement.

Before Friday’s vote, Kaine emphasized he has introduced various war powers resolutions in response to military actions from presidents of both parties over the past decade.

“They seem to have a different standard for President Trump than they did for President Obama,” Kaine said of Republicans who pressed Obama to seek approval for his own military actions in the Middle East but who aren’t insisting Trump do the same regarding Iran.

Some Republicans have argued that America’s conflict with Iran is long-standing.

“They’ve been actively targeting and killing Americans,” Sen. Tim Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL, said of Iran earlier this week. “This is not a new front to a new war. This is the continuation of open hostilities that we’ve had, arguably the longest war in America’s history.”

Kaine pushed back on that characterization.

“We’re at war when Congress says we’re at war,” Kaine said. “And if members of Congress believe we should be at war with Iran, let them introduce a declaration of war or an authorization. We’ll have a vote on it.”

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Haley Byrd Wilt is a reporter at NOTUS.

John T. Seward, a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow, contributed to this report.