The vote is a setback for Democrats’ effort to force the president to end the unpopular conflict.
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The Republican-led Senate rejected a resolution Tuesday to block President Donald Trump from ordering further U.S. strikes on Iran days after the two countries reached a limited deal to end months of fighting and start broader negotiations.
The vote is a setback for Democrats’ effort to force Trump to bring the unpopular conflict to a conclusion even as some Republicans have broken with their party and voted with Democrats.
The Senate narrowly voted to advance a similar war powers resolution last month, after four Republicans broke with their party and several others missed the vote. The House passed its own resolution this month seeking to force Trump to end the war.
But Tuesday’s resolution from Sen. Raphael G. Warnock (D-Georgia) failed 48-47 on a procedural vote.
Four Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Bill Cassidy (Louisiana), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Rand Paul (Kentucky) — voted with Democrats for the resolution. All of them also voted to advance last month’s resolution.
Democrats needed at least one more Republican to flip on Thursday to pass the resolution because one Democrat, Sen. John Fetterman (Pennsylvania), opposed it.
Five senators — Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), Josh Hawley (R-Missouri), Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), Cory Booker (D-New Jersey) and Michael Bennet (D-Colorado) — missed the vote, but their absences weren’t determinative.
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If all of them had voted the way they have on previous resolutions, Tuesday’s resolution would have failed 50-50.
The Senate can still take up the war powers resolution that advanced last month, which was introduced by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia). Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) indicated that he saw Tuesday’s vote as a test as Democrats try to win over enough Senate Republicans to pass Kaine’s resolution.
“We’re trying to get a few more Republicans to vote for the Kaine resolution so we can move forward,” Schumer told reporters. “We’re one short right now.”
Democrats have forced repeated votes on such resolutions in both chambers since the start of the conflict, slowly winning more GOP support.
The War Powers Resolution of 1973 — the law Democrats used to force the vote — requires presidents to remove U.S. forces from any conflict that Congress has not authorized within 60 days. Trump hit the deadline May 1 but dodged it by arguing that hostilities had ended when a ceasefire took effect in April.
The hurdles to Congress barring Trump from ordering further strikes on Iran are high.
Both chambers would need to pass Kaine’s resolution before it would reach Trump’s desk. Trump would almost certainly veto it, forcing the Senate and the House to override his veto with a two-thirds vote in both chambers before the resolution could take effect. No war powers resolution has ever overcome a veto.
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