The Senate for the first time approved a war powers resolution Tuesday seeking to block U.S. military action against Iran, even as the administration that launched the conflict now comes back to Congress asking for money to keep the machinery running. The vote, 50-48, marked the 10th time the Senate has tried to stop the war and came as lawmakers watched President Donald Trump’s efforts to resolve a conflict that the administration launched on its own.
Who Pays for the War
The people footing the bill are not the ones making the decisions. The Pentagon is seeking $80 billion from Congress mostly for the Iran war as it backfills munitions and stockpiles. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is on Capitol Hill this week, seeking roughly $80 billion in supplemental funding to shore up defense supplies in the aftermath of the Iran war, which is drawing scrutiny when many Americans are reeling from high gas prices and costs of living.
The Pentagon early on had estimated the war cost $11.3 billion during its first week, and senators said experts put the overall price tag of Operation Epic Fury higher, at some $100 billion. The Defense Department’s funding request is part of a broader beef-up of military money the White House wants as part of its budget request this year. The Trump administration is seeking $1.5 trillion in defense funding this year — a nearly 50% increase — including $350 billion that it wants in a so-called budget reconciliation package.
What Congress Is Calling Resistance
While the resolution is largely symbolic, and does not carry the full force of law, it reflects the growing concerns from a number of Republican lawmakers in both the House and Senate over both the war and the deal Trump struck with Iran to end it. The House approved the resolution earlier this month. Passage stands as a powerful, if symbolic, statement from Congress and a rebuke of the administration’s military actions.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said, “Time after time, the vast majority of Senate Republicans sided with Trump and his war instead of the American people.” Schumer said Americans have paid the price for “Trump’s historic blunder in Iran. It’ll go down in the history books as one of the worst foreign policy forays America has ever made.” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Tuesday, “We should not spend another dime of taxpayer dollars on Operation Epic Failure.”
The vote comes after Democrats have been forcing votes on the Iran war almost since the U.S. and Israel launched missile strikes on Iran on Feb. 28. Nearly each week they’re in session, the Senate Democrats have put forward war powers resolutions, but they have failed to amass the majority needed for passage in the narrowly split chamber, where Trump’s Republican Party holds the majority. Trump would almost certainly veto any measure that passed.
The Deal, the Money, and the Limits
The terms of the Iran deal are spelled out in a memorandum of understanding that Trump signed last week, starting a 60-day clock for the sides to reach a broader agreement over ending Iran’s nuclear program. Trump himself is headed to the Capitol on Wednesday to meet with GOP senators after Vice President JD Vance was overseas working to negotiate with Iran to end its nuclear ambitions — which had been among the stated rationales for the war.
But Republicans have particularly objected to the $300 billion fund to help Iran rebuild, which is far greater than the $1.7 billion then-President Barack Obama refunded the country under his administration’s 2015 Iran deal. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said last week on his podcast after the deal was made public, “I believe President Trump is getting very poor advice on Iran.”
In the past, as many as four GOP senators have voted for the war powers resolutions, and they did so Tuesday — Republicans Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. One Democrat, Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, voted against. On this vote, the absence of two Republicans, including Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who was admitted to the hospital recently for an undisclosed matter, left the GOP without a full majority to halt the effort. Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., also missed the vote.
The House pushed its own version to passage earlier this month, with four Republicans joining all Democrats in approving the war powers resolution, over the objections of House Speaker Mike Johnson and the GOP leadership. The House- and Senate-passed resolution does not go to the president for his signature, and Trump would almost certainly veto any measure that passed, leaving the symbolic rebellion trapped inside the same political apparatus that launched the war in the first place.