Senate votes to direct Trump to withdraw troops from Iran conflict, 4 Republicans break ranks

The Senate on Tuesday approved a House-passed resolution directing President Trump to withdraw U.S. armed forces from hostilities against Iran after four GOP senators broke ranks and voted to undercut Trump’s authority as commander in chief.

The Senate voted 50 to 48 to approve the resolution, which passed the House 215-208 earlier this month.
The measure came straight to the Senate floor Tuesday for an up-or-down vote on final passage. It does not need Trump’s signature because it is a concurrent resolution.

The resolution does not have the force of law, even though it’s been approved by both chambers.

It directs Trump under the 1973 War Powers Act to remove U.S. troops from hostilities against Iran, though it excepts elements of the armed forces that would be necessary to protect U.S. assets or allies from imminent attack.

Four Republicans voted for the measure: Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.), Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Bill Cassidy (La.).

The same four GOP senators voted last week to discharge a similar resolution from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, but it failed to advance because of Democratic attendance issues.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a swing vote who said last week he was open to hearing arguments from both sides of the debate, voted “no” on Tuesday.
Critically, two Republicans missed the vote: Sens. Dave McCormick (Pa.) and Mitch McConnell (Ky.). They previously voted multiple times against Iran war powers resolutions.

Centrist Sen. John Fetterman (Pa.) was the only Democrat to join the majority of Republicans in voting against the measure.

Four House Republicans joined every House Democrat in voting for the resolution earlier this month: Reps. Thomas Massie (Ky.), Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.), Tom Barrett (Mich.) and Warren Davidson (Ohio).
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who brought the measure to the Senate floor, urged colleagues to vote “yes” in light of the Trump administration’s request for $80 billion in emergency spending to rebuild munitions supplies that have been depleted since the conflict with Iran began on Feb. 28.

“We’re acting with more knowledge,” Kaine said. “The administration has come to us with a supplemental request asking for $80 billion more, largely necessitated by the consequences of the war, to replenish munitions, stockpiles and take other actions that wouldn’t fully repair damages, for example, that the Pentagon has incurred.”

Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who sponsored one of the Iran war powers resolutions that Republicans blocked earlier this year, hailed Tuesday’s vote as a major victory.
“From the beginning, the administration pursued this illegal war without making the case to Congress or the American people. In the months since, we’ve seen the region in chaos, shifting goalposts and rationales for the war, skyrocketing gas and grocery costs, and tragically, the lives of 13 servicemembers lost with thousands more put in harm’s way,” he wrote on the social platform X.

He added, “Today’s vote represents bipartisan and bicameral support of our efforts to end this war of choice once and for all. And it reaffirms Congress’ constitutional role in bringing this conflict to an end and bringing our servicemembers safely back home.”

The Senate voted on the measure two days after Trump threatened to bomb Iran if it doesn’t rein in its militant proxies in Lebanon.
“Iran must immediately stop their highly paid PROXIES in Lebanon from causing trouble,” Trump said Sunday. “If they don’t, we’ll hit Iran very hard again, just like we did last week, only harder!!!”

Iranian state media said those comments violated the memorandum of understanding, which in the first paragraph bars the two sides from making threats against each other.

Tuesday’s vote marked the 10th time the Senate has voted on whether to curtail Trump’s war-making authority.
Republican support for a resolution directing Trump to cease hostilities against Iran has grown steadily over the past several months.

At first, Paul was the only Senate Republican to vote for the measure.

Then Collins joined him by voting for a motion to discharge an Iran war powers resolution from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 30, just as the 60-day window set by the 1973 law allowing the president to act without congressional authorization was about to expire.
Murkowski became the third GOP senator to vote in support of a Democratic-sponsored Iran war powers resolution on May 13.

Then Cassidy became the fourth Republican to vote with Democrats after he lost his Senate Republican primary election last month.

Speaking on the Senate floor before the vote, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) denounced Trump’s decision to launch military strikes against Iran as a “historic blunder.”
“The American people have paid the price for Trump’s historic blunder in Iran. It will go down in the history books as one of the worst foreign policy [mistakes] America has ever made,” Schumer said.

“The American people have seen skyrocketing gas prices and the loss of 13 service members and the wounding of thousands more. In the meantime, Trump gave Iran everything,” he said, referring to Trump’s deal with Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which has sparked strong criticism from both Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill.

Though the concurrent resolution now passed by both chambers doesn’t have the force of law, it sends a powerful message to the White House.
It’s likely to draw an angry response from Trump, as seen when he lashed out at House Republicans who voted for it earlier this month.

Trump dismissed the House’s passage of the resolution as “a meaningless vote” and accused the four GOP lawmakers who voted with Democrats of undercutting his negotiations with Iran to end the war.

Carl Tobias, the Williams Chair in Law at the University of Richmond, called the Senate’s passage of the resolution a “very important” development.
“This step is especially important now with the midterms looming and Trump’s incessant efforts to expand executive power at the expense of Congress, the federal courts and the American people,” he said.

He acknowledged the vote is “symbolic” but added that it sends a strong political message to the president.

“This is the first both chambers of Congress have approved a concurrent resolution to end the conflict,” he said. “That would have some more force to it, politically.”
Congress passed war powers resolutions in 2019 and 2020, during Trump’s first term, directing him to withdraw U.S. forces from hostilities against Yemen and Iran, respectively.

Trump vetoed both measures. Those resolutions were structured differently and required the president’s signature.

Trump blasted the war powers resolution to limit his authority in Saudi Arabia’s conflict with Yemen as a “dangerous attempt to weaken my constitutional authorities.”
He slammed the 2020 resolution to limit his power to direct strikes against Iran as a “very insulting resolution” and “based on misunderstandings of facts and law.”