KVIG Informative

For the thirteenth time since February, the Senate rejected a measure that would have forced President Trump to seek congressional authorization for the war with Iran — and for at least the third time, one Democratic senator provided a deciding vote against his own party.

The Senate voted 50-49 on Thursday to reject a War Powers Act resolution requiring the withdrawal of U.S. forces from hostilities with Iran absent a formal declaration of war or specific congressional authorization. Three Republicans — Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Rand Paul of Kentucky — joined Democrats in voting to advance it.

Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman was the lone Democrat to vote against the measure, marking at least his third vote against war powers restrictions since the conflict began in late February. Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, who has been hospitalized for more than three weeks, did not vote.

The vote came one day after U.S. Central Command struck dozens of Iranian targets, the first such strikes in several days, following Iranian attacks on American military sites earlier in the week. Iranian state media reported that one of the U.S. strikes killed a family of three, including a 2-year-old child.

The Senate rejection followed passage of a separate, concurrent war powers resolution in the House earlier the same day. That measure passed 214-208, largely along party lines, but concurrent resolutions of this kind do not carry the force of law and cannot compel the president to act.

The Trump administration has separately asked Congress for an additional $67 billion to fund the war, on top of the roughly $37.5 billion Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Senate appropriators the conflict had already cost as of July 21.

The Pentagon has classified the mounting American casualties from the conflict as losses from “overseas operations” beginning July 7, rather than formally designating them as war casualties — a distinction that affects how the deaths are reported and how benefits are administered.

Senate Democrats have forced a war powers vote on Iran nearly every week since the conflict began, and leadership has said the repeated votes serve a purpose even in defeat: putting senators on record and increasing pressure on Republicans as the war grinds on without an endpoint in sight — or a vote that has yet to succeed.