Senate Republicans vote down legislation to halt Iran war in Congress’
first vote on the conflict
[March 05, 2026]
By STEPHEN GROVES, LISA MASCARO and MARY CLARE JALONICK
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans voted down an effort Wednesday to
halt President Donald Trump’s war against Iran, demonstrating early
support for a conflict that has rapidly spread across the Middle East
with no clear U.S. exit strategy.
The legislation, known as a war powers resolution, failed on a 47-53
vote tally. The vote fell mostly along party lines, though Republican
Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky voted in favor and Democratic Sen. John
Fetterman of Pennsylvania voted against.
The war powers resolution gave lawmakers an opportunity to demand
congressional approval before any further attacks are carried out. The
vote forced them to take a stand on a war shaping the fate of U.S.
military members, countless other lives and the future of the region.
Underscoring the gravity of the moment, Democratic senators filled the
Senate chamber and sat at their desks as the voting got underway.
Typically, senators step into the chamber to cast their vote, then
leave.
“Today every senator — every single one — will pick a side," Senate
Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said before the vote. “Do you stand with
the American people who are exhausted with forever wars in the Middle
East or stand with Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth as they bumble us
headfirst into another war?”
Sen. John Barrasso, second in Senate Republican leadership, said during
the debate that GOP senators were sending a message that Democrats are
wrong for forcing a vote on the war powers resolution.
“Democrats would rather obstruct Donald Trump than obliterate Iran’s
national nuclear program,” he added.
Trump administration scrambles for congressional support
After launching a surprise attack against Iran on Saturday, Trump has
scrambled to win support for a conflict that Americans of all political
persuasions were already wary of entering. Trump administration
officials have been a frequent presence on Capitol Hill this week as
they try to reassure lawmakers that they have the situation under
control.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday that the war could extend
eight weeks, a longer time frame than has previously been floated by the
Trump administration. He also acknowledged that Iran is still able to
carry out missile attacks even as the U.S. tries to control the
country's airspace.
U.S. service members “remain in harm’s way, and we must be clear-eyed
that the risk is still high,” Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, said at the same press conference.
Six U.S. military members were killed over the weekend in a drone strike
in Kuwait.
Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa acknowledged the human costs of the
war in her floor speech. Two of the soldiers killed Sunday were from
Iowa and a National Guard unit from her state was also attacked in Syria
in December, resulting in the deaths of two other soldiers.
“But now is our opportunity to bring an end to the decades of chaos,”
said Ernst, who herself served as an officer in the Iowa National Guard
for two decades.
“The sooner the better,” she added.
Trump has also not ruled out deploying U.S. ground troops. He has said
he is hoping to end the bombing campaign within a few weeks, but his
goals for the war have shifted from regime change to stopping Iran from
developing nuclear capabilities to crippling its navy and missile
programs.
“We should be careful about opening a door into chaos in the Middle East
when we cannot see the other side of it,” Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of
Delaware said in a solemn floor speech after the vote concluded.
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Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., boards an elevator
during a Senate war powers vote on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, March 4,
2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
He said he was praying for “grace to find a path forward together
where more do not needlessly join those who have already fallen in
this new war in the Middle East.”
Lawmakers go on record
The votes in Congress this week represented potentially
consequential markers of just where lawmakers stand on the war as
they look ahead to midterm elections and the consequences of the
conflict.
“Nobody gets to hide and give the president an easy pass or an
end-run around the Constitution,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, the Virginia
Democrat leading the war powers resolution.
Republican leaders have successfully, though narrowly, defeated a
series of war powers resolutions pertaining to several other
conflicts that Trump has entered or threatened to enter. This one,
however, was different.
Unlike Trump's military campaigns against alleged drug boats or even
Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, the attack on Iran represents an
open-ended conflict that is already ricocheting across the region.
Several senators who have voted for previous war powers resolutions
noted that they opposed this one because it applied to a conflict
that is already raging.
“Passing this resolution now would send the wrong message to Iran
and to our troops,” said GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine. "At this
juncture, providing unequivocal support to our service members is
critically important, as is ongoing consultation by the
administration with Congress.”
House vote looms
On the other side of the Capitol, an intense debate over the war
unfolded before a vote Thursday. The House first debated a
resolution presented by GOP leadership affirming that Iran is the
world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism.
Rep. Brian Mast, the GOP chairman of the House Foreign Affairs
Committee, publicly thanked Trump for taking action against Iran,
saying the president is using his own constitutional authority to
defend the U.S. against the “imminent threat” of Iran.
Mast, an Army veteran who worked as a bomb disposal expert in
Afghanistan, said the Democratic resolution was effectively asking
“that the president do nothing.”
Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs panel,
said before the debate that the hardest votes he has taken in
Congress have been to decide whether to send U.S. troops to war.
“Our young men and women’s lives are on the line,” he said, his
voice showing emotion as he emerged from a closed-door briefing late
Tuesday with Trump officials.
At a news conference Wednesday, several Democratic members who are
also veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars spoke about the heavy
costs of those conflicts.
One of them was Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo. “I learned when I was
fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, that when elites in Washington
bang the war drums, pound their chest, talk about the costs of war
and act tough, they're not talking about them doing it, they're not
talking about their kids,” Crow said. “They're talking about working
class kids like us.”
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