Senate defeats 7th attempt to limit Trump’s Iran war powers, despite new GOP rebellion
washington – The Senate rejected another attempt by Democrats to limit President Trump’s ability to use military force against Iran on Wednesday, but a new Republican senator voted to continue the measure.
The motion to issue a committee ruling failed by a vote of 49 to 50. GOP Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted with many Democrats who agreed to move forward, while Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the only Democrat to object.
Murkowski voted against moving forward with a repeat of the measure. He told reporters that after a critical 60-day window passed earlier this month, he was expecting “more clarity from the administration,” but he hasn’t gotten that yet. The Alaska Republican said he “felt now is the time” to support the measure “so we can discuss our obligations” under the War Powers Resolution.
“We are in a different place than we were when we last voted on this,” said Murkowski.
The decision, led by Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, would have ordered the president to “remove the United States Armed Forces from hostilities in or against Iran, unless expressly authorized by a declaration of war or specific authorization of the use of military force.”
Since the battle began on Feb. 28, Senate Democrats have tried to pass resolutions limiting Mr. Trump in Iran six times. Until the sixth attempt, Paul was the only Republican to support the continuation of the resolutions. After the 60-day deadline, Democrats were hoping more Republicans would join them in the latest effort.
The War Powers Resolution of 1973 requires the president to report to Congress within 48 hours of sending in troops if Congress has not authorized a declaration of war, and prohibits any unauthorized engagement in 60 days. But as the deadline is approaching, the administration says it is not working, arguing that the clock has stopped by the suspension of April 7. Mr. Trump said in a letter to congressional leaders on May 1 that The “hostility” with Iran is “over.”
Democrats have fallen back on the thinking of the administration. Merkley told reporters before Wednesday’s vote that he did not accept that the 60-day clock had been stopped, saying the war was “at another stage, and it could escalate.”
“But this will be the first vote that we look at through a lens,” said Merkley.
GOP Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, echoed the administration’s view before the vote, saying the arguments cited in the war powers resolution “do not exist today and will not exist for a long time.”
“My colleagues on the other side of the room keep saying that somehow the administration is off the 60-day clock,” Risch said. “Operations that began on Feb. 28 have been suspended. The hostilities ended on April 7 with a cease-fire. They are over – a stop.”
But Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, who led the war effort in the Senate, told reporters that the vote posed the first test of Republicans’ “loyalty to the principle they have laid out about the role that Congress should play in this very important area.”
Kaine noted that Republicans are facing pressure from their members on the impact of the war on the economy and high fuel prices: “We’re starting to feel doubt creep into their words and their statements, not just to us, but in general.”
“There will be a day, and it may be soon, I believe, when the Senate will say to the president, ‘stop this war,'” he said before the vote. “I don’t know if today will be the day, but I believe that day is coming.”
Merkley cited “an erosion of support, an erosion of enthusiasm, an increase in skepticism among our Republican colleagues about this whole project.” But he pointed out two things that likely saved Republicans in the vote: whether they would recommend a cease-fire and the president being overseas in China. He said that for Republicans, “it is doubly important to change positions while the president is abroad.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune emphasized before the vote that “right now, the president is overseas, negotiating with the Chinese on many issues, some of which affect national security.”
“And I think it would be better if everybody could come together and support the president,” the South Dakota Republican said. “But we’ll see. People make up their own minds about some of these issues.”
Merkley said he thinks many Republicans are ultimately “uncomfortable with where they stand, but also uncomfortable with being on the wrong side of Trump.”
Murkowski, who has said he intends to introduce a legal authority to use military force in Iran, questioned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth about the authority at a hearing on Tuesday. Hegseth said the administration’s view is that if the president decides to resume strikes against Iran, “we will have all the necessary authority to do so.”
When Murkowski asked if “it would be helpful for the president to make it clear” he has full authority through congressional authorization, Hegseth reiterated, “Our view is that he has all the authority he needs under Title II to exercise it.”
