WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans and a single Democrat blocked a War Powers Resolution Wednesday aimed at limiting President Donald Trump’s joint war with Israel in Iran that has taken the lives of six American troops and killed top Iranian leaders.

The resolution failed 47-52, with Sen. Rand Paul, R- Ky., the only Republican to cosponsor the measure, joining Democrats in challenging Trump’s war in Iran. 

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., was the lone Democrat to break with his party and vote against moving ahead with the measure.

The vote came five days after Trump ordered the military to join Israel in surprise strikes on Iran that killed its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Pentagon officials say the administration does not plan to let up on the continuing offensive.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said earlier Wednesday that U.S. B-1, B-2 and B-52 aircraft, as well as Predator drones, will fly with Israeli airpower “day and night” to deploy “death and destruction from the sky all day long.”

Republicans have largely fallen in line to support Trump’s actions and have panned the War Powers Resolution that would compel the president to answer to Capitol Hill on moving forward in Iran. 

Democrats assert Trump’s war in Iran is illegal, violating the Constitution’s Article I power given to Congress to declare war. Republicans maintain Trump acted well within war powers granted to the president in Article II of the Constitution.

‘Members of the Senate, this is war’

The 1973 War Powers Resolution mandates the president report to Congress within 48 hours of deploying troops. If after 60 days from first notice Congress has not authorized a war or passed legislation related to the military action, the president’s use of armed forces is automatically terminated. 

Congress passed the act to rein in presidential war powers, despite a veto from President Richard Nixon amid the ongoing Vietnam War. Congress overrode the veto.

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said on the floor ahead of the vote that Republicans want “to give the president an easy pass around the Constitution.”

“You can’t stand up and say, this is one and done, and no troops are engaged in hostilities against Iran. Members of the Senate, this is war. The president of the United States has called it a war against Iran,” said Kaine, who sits on the Senate Committee on Armed Services.

Kaine sponsored the War Powers Resolution alongside Paul.

Kaine said on the floor that during a classified briefing from the administration Tuesday, he asked officials if the recent pattern of military interventions in Venezuela and now Iran meant “that you believe you never need to come to Congress to wage war against anyone, anywhere.”

“No one” refuted his point, he said.

Briefings for Congress

Administration officials briefed all members of Congress Tuesday, for the first time since the war began. Officials had briefed congressional leaders and intelligence committee heads.

Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., who also sits on the Armed Services Committee, said ahead of the vote the Constitution “leaves no room for doubt that Congress, not the president, has the sole power to declare war.”

“And that check is in place for a very important reason. Our founders did not want to place the immense power over whether or not to go to war in the hands of just one individual,” Peters said. 

Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, said on the floor ahead of the vote the vast majority of presidents in American history “have ordered kinetic acts, just like President Trump has done, without going to Congress.”

“This isn’t new,” said Risch, who chairs the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Lindsey Graham again lauds Trump

In lengthy comments on the Senate floor prior to the vote, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., praised Trump’s decisions on Iran and argued the War Powers Resolution violates the Constitution.

“To my Democratic colleagues, what you’re proposing will cause chaos for every commander-in-chief that follows,” said Graham, a Trump ally who has been outspoken in support of the war all week. 

Graham said if Congress wants to stop Trump’s war in Iran, it can do so by cutting funding during the annual appropriations process.

“The president, as commander-in-chief, has the ability to use our armed forces to protect our nation. And Congress, if we disagree with that choice, has the ability to terminate the action, taking the money away, and that’s the check and balance that was created a long time ago,” Graham said.

Speaker Johnson says US not at war

The U.S. House is expected to take up the War Powers Resolution Thursday. Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters multiple times this week he expects it to fail.

During a morning press conference, Johnson said he doesn’t believe the military is “at war right now” and argued that Congress limiting the president’s ability to continue attacking Iran “would put the country in serious harm.”

Johnson brushed aside the possibility that Americans may vote Republicans out of power during November’s midterm elections if the war drags on, especially without a formal authorization from Congress. 

“I think they’ll reward it politically, but if people get a bad taste in their mouth for what happened back here in the first part of the year in Iran, they just do,” he said. “But we know, and history will record that we did the right thing.”

Johnson added that he believes lawmakers voting against continued military action in Iran “would be a terrible, dangerous idea.”

A War Powers Resolution to halt Trump’s military actions in Venezuela narrowly failed in January in both the House and Senate.

Ground troops?

The White House maintains Iran rejected any negotiations with the U.S. on reining in its nuclear program, and that the objective of the war launched over the weekend is to destroy Iran’s current weapons capacity and missile production, and “end their pathway to nuclear weapons,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday.

The press secretary said American ground troops are “not part of the current plan” but did not rule out that it’s an option “on the table.”

Leavitt denied any claims that the goal of the offensive is regime change, despite the killing of some of Iran’s leaders.

Leavitt said during the press briefing that the U.S. bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities in June, dubbed Operation Midnight Hammer, “obliterated Iran’s three major nuclear sites.”

“Yet the terrorist Iranian regime has remained fully committed to rebuilding its nuclear program,” she said.

Iranian authorities said in November the nation was no longer enriching uranium, according to The Associated Press. The AP further reported the reclusive government has blocked international inspectors from assessing its four nuclear enrichment facilities, citing a confidential report journalists viewed from the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Control of the skies, sinking a ship

Hegseth underlined Wednesday morning the U.S. will not slow down its offensive in Iran, already having struck 2,000 targets, and that more troops and airpower will arrive Wednesday.

The secretary said the U.S. and Israel will have “complete control of the Iranian skies” within a few days. 

Hegseth also showed a video of an apparent U.S. submarine strike in the Indian Ocean on Iran’s “prize ship,” sinking it. 

General Dan Caine, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the submarine used a single torpedo to sink the ship — the first time a U.S. submarine has done so since World War II, he said.

U.S. Central Command wrote on social media that it had “struck or sunk to the bottom of the ocean” more than 20 Iranian regime ships.

The Pentagon cited a significant decrease in Iran’s retaliatory strikes. The regime launched rockets and drones on civilian sites throughout the Persian Gulf states beginning Sunday, and on regional U.S. military bases. 

Caine said to date, Iran’s missile and drone strikes respectively dropped 86% and 73% from the first day of fighting.

A drone attack killed six U.S. troops Sunday at a commercial port in Kuwait, a U.S. ally.

Caine said the remains of the six U.S. soldiers will return to the U.S. “as soon as possible.” The Pentagon publicly identified four late Wednesday, and Caine said the military will release the names of the other two troops killed “as soon as we can ensure that all of those families have been properly notified.”

Leavitt said Trump will attend the transfer of the troops’ remains upon arrival at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

Hegseth bashes media

Hegseth said the Pentagon moved 90% of U.S. troops out of the range of Iran’s missile reach prior to the war.

“We’ve taken control of Iran’s airspace and waterways without boots on the ground. We control their fate, but when a few drones get through or tragic things happen, it’s front-page news. I get it. The press only wants to make the president look bad,” he said.

Both Hegseth and Leavitt declined to provide details about a strike Saturday on an elementary school in southern Iran that local authorities said killed 168 people, many of them children.

“All I can say is that we’re investigating that. We, of course, never target civilian targets,” Hegseth said. 

When pressed on whether it was a U.S. or Israeli munition that struck the school, Hegseth replied: “We’re investigating it.”

Jennifer Shutt contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON — Republican lawmakers said Tuesday after classified briefings on Capitol Hill they don’t intend to limit President Donald Trump’s ability to continue the war in Iran, though some said sending in ground troops would be a step too far. 

Democrats argued that military and administration officials shared no clear objectives or exit strategy for the war, making debate and a vote in Congress more important. 

“When there is no set plan … you end up with an endless war, you end up with mission creep, you end up with all kinds of problems,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said. “What’s really needed is a public debate so the American people, who already are very much against this, can see what we have seen.” 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said during an afternoon press conference before the briefing that he doesn’t believe Congress needs to declare or authorize the war.  

“No, I think the president has the authority that he needs to conduct the activities and the operations that are currently underway there,” he said. “As you know, there’s a lot of controversy around, questions around the War Powers Act. But I think the president is acting in the best interest of the nation and our national security interests by ensuring that he’s protecting Americans and American bases and installations in that region, as well as those of our allies.”

Lawmakers received closed-door briefings from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe.

Tim Kaine, Rand Paul push war powers vote

The Senate is expected to vote Wednesday on a War Powers Resolution co-sponsored by Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine and Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul that would direct the administration “to remove the United States Armed Forces from hostilities within or against Iran, unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or a specific authorization for use of military force.” 

The House will vote later this week, likely Thursday, on a similar proposal from Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie and California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has said that effort doesn’t have the support to take effect. 

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said as he was walking out of the afternoon briefing that the Trump administration will not rule out boots on the ground. 

Wicker said he doesn’t believe Congress would need to authorize U.S. troops in Iran, though he declined to answer a question about why he thinks the president holds the authority for a ground war not approved by lawmakers. 

A report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service notes that while Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 of the Constitution grants Congress the power to declare war, that authority “has been heavily debated.” 

“The Supreme Court has observed that only Congress has the power to declare war, but the implications of this exclusive assignment are not well-settled,” the report says. “In particular, the relationship between Congress’s power to declare war and the President’s war powers granted under Article II of the Constitution is the subject of significant disagreement.”

‘This is a massive operation and rapidly changing’

Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy said he doesn’t “think the American people want to see troops on the ground. I don’t think that’s the case. And although they left open that possibility, it seems not to be something they’re emphasizing.”

Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley said he believes Congress would need to authorize U.S. troops on the ground in Iran, something he’s unlikely to support. 

“I find it difficult to imagine a scenario where I would,” he said. 

Hawley said the classified briefing left the impression the Trump administration’s war in Iran will continue for some time. 

“I think there’ll be a lot more to come, because one of the things I took away from this is, this is a massive operation and rapidly changing,” he said. 

Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski said it “was an important briefing that we had today and it is a situation that is clearly evolving rapidly.”

North Dakota Republican Sen. John Hoeven declined to answer a question about whether he would support Trump sending U.S. troops into Iran. 

“Well, again, that’s an option, and if and when it would occur, we could deal with it at that point,” he said. “But I think at this point, there’s no indication of that.”

Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin said that Hegseth is “not going to limit any options to the president” when asked about the possibility of U.S. troops on the ground in Iran.

Mullin described the role Congress plays in authorizing the administration’s offensive in Iran as “debatable.”

“We’re not going to take away the authority of the president of the United States to be able to be the commander-in-chief. … We don’t need 535 commanders,” Mullin said.

Lindsey Graham ‘never felt better about how this ends’

Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, a retired Navy captain, said the level of interceptor stockpiles is a “big concern.”

“We do not have an unlimited supply and the Iranians do have the ability to make a lot of Shahed drones, ballistic missiles, medium-range, short-range. And they’ve got a huge stockpile,” Kelly said. “So at some point, we’re probably already in this, this becomes a math problem. And how can we resupply air defense munitions? Where are they going to come from? How does that affect other theaters?”

The Trump administration pulling from the Indo-Pacific Command, for example, Kelly said, would leave troops in that region of the world “more vulnerable.”

“We don’t have an unlimited supply. They’re shooting a lot of stuff,” he said. “Certainly, the number has gone down somewhat over time. But the math on this currently seems to be an issue.”

Senate Appropriations Committee ranking member Patty Murray, D-Wash., said the administration has yet to ask Congress to provide additional funding for the war. 

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., exited the briefing saying he “never felt better about how this ends.”

Graham said he spoke with Arab leaders by phone earlier in the day and “they’re going to get in the fight in a more direct way.”

Graham also spoke directly to the cameras, in case Trump was watching, he said, to encourage the president to join Israel in bombing Iranian-backed Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon.

“Not only take the mothership of Iran down, also take the proxy of Hezbollah. Settle the score,” Graham said.

Mike Johnson defends Trump constitutional authority

Johnson said Trump took advantage of “a narrow and unique opportunity” to attack Iran over the weekend, and that he was “well within his constitutional authority to do what he has done.”

“We had counsel from the (Department of Justice) here tonight, who said very well, very clearly — fell just short of citing the specific case law — but explained that this has been the tradition for decades.”

Johnson said the U.S. joint war with Israel in Iran has been “very effective thus far” and described the proposed War Powers Resolution as “dangerous.”

The U.S. mission in Iran “needs to be completed,” he said. “We don’t need Congress getting in the way of that.”

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, said she is a “no for now” on the Wars Powers Resolution vote later this week.

“But if this thing goes beyond a few weeks, I’m going to have a lot more concerns,” Mace said, adding that boots on the ground “would be a very different conversation.”

“That’s not where we are today. That’s not what I heard in the briefing,” Mace said, declining to provide more details from the classified meeting. “I feel very good and very confident about where we are roughly just over 100 hours into the strikes in this conflict.”