Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked a Democratic effort to end the US war with Iran, voting 49-50 against a House-passed war powers resolution as the conflict passed the 200-day mark, with 19 American service members killed.
The measure passed the House earlier with bipartisan support. Senate Democrats, led by the minority leader, Chuck Schumer, and the senator Andy Kim of New Jersey, forced the vote under the War Powers Resolution, which allows lawmakers to bring such measures to the floor.
In June, the Senate adopted a similar House-passed resolution 50-48, with four Republicans – Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Rand Paul – voting in favor. But a month later, after the ceasefire collapsed, the chamber voted 47-49 against advancing a legally binding joint resolution, with Collins the only Republican in support.
After the vote, Ron Wyden, the Democratic senator from Oregon, acknowledged the uphill fight. “We’re going to stay at it until we win,” he said. Wyden said the biggest challenge was senators who were “pretty cautious and looking at the constitutional authority”.
Democratic senator Tim Kaine from Virginia echoed that sentiment, saying: “We’re going to keep doing them every week because we see Republican candidates out in the field now starting to change their position.”
“We started with one Republican vote, and we have five now,” he said. “So we’ll keep at it.”
Still, not all Republicans are convinced on the reasons to end the war. Dan Sullivan, the Republican senator from Alaska, said: “The war powers vote is about removing American forces from the region, and when there are troops in contact, I don’t believe in doing it.”
Speaking before the vote, Kim, a former state department official who served in the Middle East, said Americans were “sick and tired of this reckless and expensive war”.
“Democrats have taken action. We’ve come to this chamber 11 times in the past 208 days to try to bring this war to an end,” Kim said.
He cited a congressional budget office report estimating the war cost nearly $40bn in its first four months, and said at least 19 US service members had been killed and more than 750 injured. Kim also said estimates showed higher petrol prices had cost American households about $900 each since the war began.
“Chaos is not a negotiating tactic,” Kim said. “Trump is simply over his head here.”
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