WASHINGTON — Senators again brushed aside a resolution to force an end to U.S. military operations against Iran without approval from Congress.
The chamber voted, 46-51, largely along party lines, to block the resolution, which would require President Donald Trump to withdraw U.S. troops from the Iranian fighting. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, and Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ), voted for the resolution.
“The problem we have right now,” Booker said on the Senate floor during debate Wednesday about the resolution, “is the inaction of this body.”
Congress, not the president, has the sole authority to declare war, Booker accurately said. “Explicitly stated in the Constitution is that those powers lie with us.”
Booker, Kim and other Democrats have pushed for public hearings about the war.
Wednesday night’s vote marked the fifth time the Senate has tabled legislation to check Trump’s war powers on Iran. Democrats have filed at least nine similar measures that will be ready for consideration in the coming days.
The House, along party lines, also rejected a resolution to check Trump’s war authorities, with Democrats voting to end military operations and Republicans backing the administration.
In the weeks since U.S. and Israeli forces attacked Iran on Feb. 28, thousands of civilians in the Middle East have been killed, the administration has moved military ships into the region and 13 U.S. service members have died.
Republicans have backed Trump so far on Iran, arguing that it would be risky to restrain the president during wartime.
“Passing this resolution would be unwise,” said Republican Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “It would curtail the president’s authority.” Voting to rein in Trump’s war-making authority would “weaken the hands” of U.S. negotiators abroad, Wicker said. “I don’t think negotiations are going to get us anywhere.”
With a handful of other Democrats, Booker and Kim have filed resolutions under the War Powers Act of 1973 to end the conflict.
The statute requires the White House to inform Congress within 48 hours of an attack and prohibits troops from engagement in a given conflict for longer than 60 days — an approaching deadline. The law also mandates that Congress be consulted “in every possible instance” and binds the president to file reports with Congress every six months during a conflict.
Next week at a budget hearing, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest-ranking military official of the U.S. armed forces, will be peppered with questions about the war. Reps. Donald Norcross (D-1st) and Herb Conaway (D-3rd) are members of the House Armed Services Committee, where Hegseth and Caine will appear.
Beyond warships and troops, the Trump administration has moved missile interceptors — projectiles that shoot down incoming weapons — to U.S. bases and to allied nations.
The administration “deployed 10,000 more U.S. troops into harm’s way into this region,” Booker said last week.
The Pentagon this month cleared a $4.5 billion arms package for the United Arab Emirates, a U.S. ally. The firm that won that deal is defense Lockheed Martin Corp., the world’s biggest defense contractor, which has a significant presence in Moorestown, Burlington County.
“This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States by helping to improve the security of an important regional partner,” the Defense Department said in a memo about the weapons package.
New Jersey Republicans have stuck with Trump on Iran, arguing that he is within his authority as commander in chief to direct the ongoing war.
“I think the element of surprise means fewer casualties on our part,” Rep. Chris Smith (R-4th) said when asked if Trump should have briefed lawmakers on war plans.
Rep. Frank Pallone (D-6th), who, like Smith, was in Congress when the George W. Bush administration proposed war plans for Iraq, find the parallels striking.
“Now we are watching the same reckless playbook unfold again,” Pallone said last month after a House vote against an Iran war powers resolution.
