Senate approves Iran war powers resolution, rebuking Trump on Iran strike authority

The Senate voted 50-48 to approve a war powers resolution aimed at Donald Trump’s authority over Iran. Four Republicans, Susan Collins of Maine, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, joined almost every Democrat as two other Republicans did not vote. The House had already passed the same resolution 215-208 earlier in June.

The measure was a concurrent resolution, so it did not go to Trump for signature and does not bind the White House on its own. It can register congressional opposition and sharpen pressure on the administration, but it cannot by itself order U.S. forces home or rewrite presidential war powers. Trump called the vote “poorly timed and meaningless,” and the White House dismissed it as ineffectual.

The vote revived a long-running separation-of-powers fight rooted in the War Powers Resolution, the 1973 law enacted over Richard Nixon’s veto to check unilateral presidential war-making and require reporting to Congress when forces are introduced into hostilities. Congress has rarely used that statute this way, and the June 23 vote was the first time both chambers approved a war powers measure aimed at ending or limiting U.S. hostilities against Iran.

Senate Republicans had been pressing for more detail on a Trump-Iran memorandum of understanding, including sanctions relief, nuclear restrictions and whether Congress should have to approve any longer-term arrangement. The Senate had already debated Iran war powers in May and early June, and the 50-48 result showed enough GOP defections. The break from Trump came from Collins, Paul, Cassidy and Murkowski.