(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) The Senate on Wednesday voted against advancing a War Powers Resolution aimed at halting further US military action against Iran without authorization from Congress amid the major US-Israeli bombing campaign in the country.
The resolution, introduced by Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Rand Paul (R-KY), failed in a vote of 47-53, with Paul being the only Republican to support the measure. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) was the only Democrat to oppose the bill, as he has come out strongly in favor of the war.
The resolution was defeated even as the Trump administration is making it clear it intends to escalate the conflict and hasn’t ruled out the possibility of putting troops on the ground inside Iran. Kaine made the point that the vote will put US lawmakers on record on where they stand on the war.
“Nobody gets to hide and give the president an easy pass or an end-run around the Constitution,” Kaine said. “Everybody’s got to declare whether they’re for this war or against it.”
The House debated its own War Powers Resolution on Wednesday, but a vote isn’t expected until Thursday. “Under our Constitution, the power to initiate war rests solely with Congress,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), a co-sponsor of the bill, said on X. “Congress owes our service members a clearly defined mission, so that when they accomplish it, they can come home.”
The House bill may have a better chance of passing since other Republicans have signaled they will join Massie in dissenting against President Trump on the war.
“De facto war is still war, and not unprecedented. The Korean War was never authorized by Congress and they too pretended it wasn’t a war,” Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) wrote on X. “This passive approach is commonly cited as a laughable example of Constitutional avoidance and contributed to passage of the War Powers Act.”
This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com.
