The vote was the latest setback in Democrats’ long-shot strategy to block Trump from ordering military strikes without authorisation from Congress.
They have forced votes on eight war power resolutions in the House and Senate - a record for a single Congress - since Trump returned to office in an attempt to block him from striking Venezuela, Iran and boats near Latin America suspected of smuggling drugs. All of them have failed.
Republicans in Congress broadly support Trump’s decision to strike Iran, though a few have raised concerns about Congress’s lack of involvement.
“We should’ve been holding hearings and asking probing questions and making the case to get a greater measure of unity around this operation on the front end,” Senator Todd Young (R-Indiana), who opposed the resolution, told reporters ahead of the vote. “But here we are. We’re at war.”
Young and other Republicans argued that ordering the withdrawal of US forces from a conflict started days earlier would send the wrong message.
“I hope our colleagues will consider the consequences of terminating ongoing operations before they have succeeded,” Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) said on the Senate floor. “What would the Chinese or the Russians conclude if America abruptly lost its stomach for decisive action?”
Democrats countered that the war powers resolution was Congress’s opportunity to prevent Trump from continuing a war with Iran that it did not authorise.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) described it as “Senate Republicans’ chance to put pressure on Donald Trump’s manic decision to drive us into war”.
Many Democrats have compared Trump’s strikes on Iran to the Iraq War, although President George W. Bush sought and received authorisation from Congress before the US invasion in 2003.
Trump has not asked for authorisation to strike Iran, and Democrats warned that failing to rein him in now could set a precedent.
“If we vest the sole power to make war in the president of the United States, the sole decision to bring a country into war with the president of the United States, there is no check on the use of that authority, there is no check on the abuse of that authority,” Senator Adam Schiff (D-California) - who introduced the resolution with Senator Tim Kaine (D-Virginia), Paul and Schumer - said on the Senate floor before the vote.
The House is set to vote tomorrow 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.”
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 US forces from a conflict or to block strikes when hostilities are imminent.
But even if Congress passed such a resolution, it would stand little chance of forcing Trump to end the war with Iran because he could veto it.
Over-riding a veto would require a two-thirds majority in both chambers. No war powers resolution has ever overcome a veto.
- Liz Goodwin, Noah Robertson and Marianna Sotomayor contributed to this report.
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