WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Republicans and one Democrat blocked another War Powers Resolution Wednesday night to stop President Donald Trump from further military action in Iran without authorization from Congress.

The resolution failed to advance, 47-53. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., broke with Democrats to join Republicans in opposing the measure. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., voted in favor.

The vote came two weeks after a similar effort to rein in Trump’s executive war powers failed in the Senate, and a day later in the U.S. House. 

The vote also occurred hours after congressional Democrats, including Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., protested on the Capitol lawn against the war, calling attention to a U.S. strike on the war’s first day that killed more than 100 elementary school children.

Booker leads opposition to war

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., one of the resolution’s lead sponsors, said “Americans are paying the price” for the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran.

Booker said Trump, whom he described as “cocky” about the conflict, should send Cabinet members before the Senate to testify under oath.

“Thousands of people have died in this war. In barely two weeks, 200 Americans have been injured in this war. Thirteen Americans have paid the ultimate price for a war that we have gone into on the decision made by one man. The American people at large are paying costs in the billions of dollars a week,” Booker said on the floor ahead of the vote.

Booker was joined by Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va., Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn, in sponsoring the measure. One Republican, Paul, co-sponsored the previous War Powers Resolution aimed at curtailing Trump’s actions in Iran.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said “ there’s no end in sight” to the war. 

“No more senseless wars in the Middle East. No more gas prices shooting through the roof. No more US service members fighting and dying in endless wars,” he said on the floor just before the vote.

Graham defends war

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a vocal proponent of Trump’s war in Iran, said he knows the economy is “tough” for Americans.

“I know the economy on the gas front is hurting, but I do believe this with every ounce of my being — if we had not done this, they would be on the path, the Iranian regime, to a nuclear capability, and they would use it. Eventually, they would use it or give it to somebody who would,” Graham said.

Oil shot up to nearly $111 a barrel on the global market Wednesday as Iran continues to block a major shipping route.

Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, dismissed the Democrats’ “dangerous, obstructive resolutions.” 

“Fellow senators, I urge you tonight to join me in defeating this resolution, as we have done over and over again,” said Risch, Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair, on the floor ahead of the vote. 

A War Powers Resolution to cut off Trump’s military power in Venezuela narrowly failed in the Senate in January when Vice President JD Vance had to break a tie.

War Powers Resolutions require a simple majority to advance.

The 1973 War Powers Resolution law 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.

WASHINGTON — Against a backdrop of children’s backpacks and shoes Wednesday, congressional Democrats protested President Donald Trump’s war with Iran, specifically denouncing an early U.S. strike that killed more than 100 elementary school students in the country’s southern city of Minab.

The lawmakers attended the installation organized by peace advocacy group Win Without War nearly 20 days into the U.S.-Israeli campaign in Iran that has claimed the lives of 13 U.S. service members, nearly 2,000 civilians and military personnel in Iran, just under 1,000 civilians in Lebanon, and dozens of civilians across the Persian Gulf nations and Israel, according to state officials and human rights organizations.

The conflict, which Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have vowed to continue unabated, is “illegal” and a “war of choice,” the Democratic lawmakers said on the lawn just outside the U.S. House of Representatives.

Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., said Trump launched the war “without a clear case made to the American people and without any strategy or plan.”

“And that lack of planning has had devastating consequences. One of the very first strikes of this illegal war hit a girls elementary school in Iran, killing at least 175 people, most of them children,” said Ansari, who added she is the only Iranian-American member of Congress.

News reports citing Iranian authorities and human rights organization Amnesty International say 168 children were killed when the U.S. struck the Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in Hormozgan province on Feb. 28, the first day of the war.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told reporters on March 4 that the Pentagon is investigating the strike and that the U.S. does not target civilians.

Reporters then pressed Hegseth days after a March 11 News York Times report revealed an ongoing military investigation determined a U.S. Tomahawk missile had hit the school.

“We’re not going to let reporting lead us or force our hand into indicating what happened in a particular situation, because the truth matters,” Hegseth responded during a March 13 briefing. “So I can report that (U.S. Central Command) has designated an investigating officer to complete a command investigation.”

Nearly every Senate Democrat demanded in a March 11 letter that the Pentagon swiftly reveal the investigation’s findings.

 

Hearings sought

Congressional Democrats are also urging Republican colleagues to hold open hearings where administration officials would be tasked with publicly testifying under oath.

“The administration refuses to send their decisionmakers up to Capitol Hill to explain why they dragged America into this war, and the reason they don’t want to show up is they don’t have good answers for the American people,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen said at the Wednesday event.

“We have lost 13 of our service members (and) over 2000 civilians have been killed throughout the Middle East. And of course, those are the greatest losses, the loss of life, but it’s also costing the American people $1 billion a day,” the Maryland Democrat continued.

The cost to the federal government of funding the war is substantial, reaching $5.2 billion after just two days, according to one estimate. Other estimates have put the cost at closer to $11.3 billion after two weeks.

Ansari, Van Hollen and several other Democratic members at the protest assured they would vote ‘no’ should the White House ask Congress for extra money to fund the war.

The majority of House and Senate Republicans, and a handful of Democrats, have so far blocked attempts to rein in Trump’s executive war powers in Iran.

Senate Democrats are expected to force another War Powers Resolution vote as early as Wednesday evening.

Gabbard testifies to Senate

Senators tasked with overseeing federal intelligence had the opportunity to question Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and other top national security officials Wednesday at a previously scheduled annual hearing on the worldwide threat assessment.

Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., pressed Gabbard during the nearly three-hour hearing on Trump’s reasoning for attacking Iran last month when the administration claimed Iran’s nuclear weapons program had been “obliterated” in joint air strikes with Israel in June.

“Was it the intelligence community’s assessment that, nevertheless, despite this obliteration, there was a quote ‘imminent nuclear threat’ posed by the Iranian regime? Yes or no?” Ossoff asked.

“It is not the intelligence community’s responsibility to determine what is and is not an imminent threat,” Gabbard responded. “That is up to the president based on a volume of information that he receives.”

On Tuesday, Gabbard’s deputy, Joe Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, publicly resigned in a letter stating “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation.”

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