The GOP-controlled Senate narrowly killed a bipartisan war powers resolution that would have ordered an end to U.S. military involvement in Iran, the 14th time the upper chamber has taken up the measure since the conflict began in February.
Thursday's vote marked another failed attempt by Senate Democrats, who have routinely forced floor votes on the resolution throughout the nearly seven-month-long conflict. Most Republican incumbents facing competitive reelection battles voted with President Donald Trump to oppose the measure, even as a growing number of GOP senators in tough races have publicly called for an end to the fighting, the Washington Examiner reported.
The result underscores how tightly Senate Republicans remain bound to the president on the Iran question, at least for now. Democrats have pressed the issue repeatedly, banking on the political cost of an extended conflict to peel off enough GOP votes. So far, that strategy has fallen short.
Thursday's defeat did not come in a vacuum. Just weeks earlier, the Senate voted 50, 48 to adopt a version of the same war powers resolution, directing Trump to remove U.S. armed forces from hostilities with Iran. Four Republican senators, Susan Collins of Maine, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Rand Paul of Kentucky, crossed party lines to join Democrats, while Democrat John Fetterman of Pennsylvania broke with his own party to oppose the measure.
That 50, 48 vote was historic. It was the first time Congress had passed a resolution directing a president to end an undeclared war since the War Powers Resolution became law in 1973, the New York Post reported.
But the resolution is concurrent, meaning it does not require the president's signature. Critics, including several Senate Republicans, have argued the Supreme Court has previously held that type of legislative mechanism unconstitutional, rendering the measure symbolic at best. Supporters countered that it sent a clear political signal about congressional authority over war-making.
Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, warned that passage would undercut active diplomacy. Risch told colleagues:
"If this passes, the Iranians are going to simply stand up and walk away from negotiations. They're going to say, This thing's over, that Congress has told the President of the United States leave us alone."
The shifting vote counts tell a story of their own. After the 50, 48 passage, Cassidy and Paul reversed their positions in a later vote, helping the Senate block a subsequent war powers resolution. That reversal restored the GOP firewall Trump needed and set the stage for Thursday's defeat of the measure.
Fetterman's willingness to side with Republicans on Iran has drawn attention across the aisle. Senate Majority Leader John Thune publicly said Republicans would welcome Fetterman if the Pennsylvania senator ever chose to leave the Democratic Party, a sign of how fluid the upper chamber's coalitions have become on national security votes.
The congressional tug-of-war has played out against live diplomatic efforts. U.S. and Iranian negotiators are meeting in Switzerland to finalize terms under which Tehran would abandon its nuclear program in exchange for lifted sanctions, unfrozen assets, and a $300 billion Gulf Arab-financed reconstruction fund.
Trump has complained that congressional action against the war weakened his leverage to negotiate a favorable outcome. The resolution's text would have directed the president to "remove United States Armed Forces from hostilities against the Islamic Republic of Iran, other than those elements of the Armed Forces that may be necessary to defend the United States or an ally or partner of the United States from imminent attack."
That language, supporters said, left room for defensive operations while reasserting Congress's constitutional role in authorizing prolonged military action. Opponents argued it would hand Tehran a strategic advantage at the worst possible moment, with a deal on the table and American negotiators pressing for nuclear concessions.
The Senate has also been busy on other fronts this session, recently confirming Jay Clayton as intelligence chief in another closely watched vote that tested party discipline on Trump's nominees.
Democrats have now forced fourteen separate war powers votes in the Senate since February. The strategy amounts to a slow-pressure campaign: force vulnerable Republicans to take a recorded position on an unpopular conflict, then use those votes in campaign ads.
So far, the math has not worked in Democrats' favor. Thursday's narrow defeat showed that most of the Republican incumbents in competitive seats are calculating that loyalty to the president carries less political risk than a break on national security. Whether that holds through the fall depends on how long the conflict drags on, and whether the Switzerland talks produce a deal voters can see.
The nearly seven-month timeline matters. A conflict that began in February and still requires active diplomatic negotiations in late summer is not the kind of short engagement the White House originally signaled. Every additional war powers vote gives Democrats another chance to test GOP unity, and every week without a deal raises the political temperature for senators already facing tough reelection fights.
Senate vote margins on this issue have been razor-thin all session, and attendance alone can shift the outcome. A single absence or a single defection changes the calculus entirely.
Congress can keep voting. But votes that carry no legal force and no presidential signature do not end wars; they make press releases. If Democrats want to constrain the commander-in-chief, they will need more than symbolism and floor theatrics. They will need enough Republicans willing to put their seats on the line. Thursday proved, again, that they do not have them.
