The Senate is scheduled to take an initial vote Wednesday on blocking President Donald Trump from ordering further strikes on Iran, offering the first test of Congress’s support for a campaign that Trump launched without its consent.
Democrats — along with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) — are forcing a vote on a war powers resolution over the opposition of most Republicans, who control the Senate. Democrats are imploring a handful of Republicans to break with their party to end the conflict and reassert Congress’s control over declaring war.
“I pray so hard for my colleagues to exercise the judgment that this is not the right time for more war,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) said Monday on the Senate floor.
But the resolution faces tough odds.
Congress has voted on seven other war powers resolutions since June, all of which failed. Sen. Todd Young (R-Indiana), who voted to advance a resolution in January to block Trump from taking further military action in Venezuela, said Wednesday that he will oppose this one.
“The United States and our allies are now in conflict with a brutal, hostile, and dangerous regime,” Young said in a statement. “I believe that danger will only grow if we limit the President’s military options at this critical moment.”
Most Republicans support the U.S. and Israeli assault on Iran that started Saturday, which has killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top Iranian leaders, and they are working to defeat the resolution.
“We should let him finish the job,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) told reporters, referring to Trump. “We should cheer him on, in my view.”
The House is set to vote Thursday on a similar war powers resolution, which Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said he believes he has the votes to defeat.
“The idea that we would take the ability of our commander in chief … to finish this job is a frightening prospect to me,” Johnson told reporters. “It’s dangerous, and I am certainly hopeful — and I believe we do — have the votes to put it down.”
In the Senate, at least four Republicans besides Paul would need to support the resolution for it to pass if every senator is voting. One Democrat, Sen. John Fetterman (Pennsylvania), has said he will oppose it.
The resolution stands little chance of forcing Trump to stop the strikes. Even if it passes the Senate and the House, Trump could veto it. Overriding Trump’s veto would require a two-thirds majority in both chambers. No war powers resolution has ever overcome a veto.
The Senate vote Wednesday is an initial procedural vote to advance the resolution, and any Republicans who support it could still oppose its final passage.
That’s what happened in January, when five Republicans — Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Susan Collins (Maine) and Josh Hawley (Missouri), along with Young and Paul — voted with Democrats to advance the resolution blocking strikes on Venezuela. But Hawley and Young flipped days later after Trump wrote on social media that they “should never be elected to office again.” (Young switched his position after Secretary of State Marco Rubio agreed to testify publicly about the administration’s Venezuela strategy and to seek authorization from Congress before sending U.S. forces back into the country.)
Democrats wanted to force a vote on the Iran resolution before the strikes, which Kaine said last week would increase its odds of passing. But they did not do so, in part because negotiations between the Trump administration and Iran were still underway.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) — who introduced the resolution with Sen. Adam Schiff (D-California), Kaine and Paul — described it as “the Senate Republicans’ chance to put pressure on Donald Trump’s manic decision to drive us into war.”
Some Democrats have compared Trump’s strikes on Iran to the Iraq War, although President George W. Bush sought and received authorization from Congress before the U.S. invasion in 2003. Trump has not asked for authorization to strike Iran.
The War Powers Resolution, which Congress passed in 1973 in response to the Vietnam War, allows a single lawmaker to force a vote to withdraw U.S. forces from a conflict or to block strikes when hostilities are imminent. It also requires the president to withdraw forces after 60 days — or 90 days if the president seeks an extension — unless Congress declares war or authorizes the use of military force.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) said Tuesday that he does not believe the Trump administration needed to seek authorization to continue the Iran campaign even if it lasts for longer than 90 days.
“I think the president has the authority that he needs to conduct the activities, the operations that are currently underway there,” Thune told reporters.
Still, Thune said he hoped the campaign wouldn’t take that long.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Rubio and other administration officials held briefings for lawmakers Tuesday, which Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) said convinced him that the campaign could last a long time.
“I think they have contempt for Congress,” Murphy told reporters. “They have no plans to come to Congress for any authorization, even if they were to insert ground forces.”
Liz Goodwin, Noah Robertson and Marianna Sotomayor contributed to this report.
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