Congress Has Voted Four Times to Stop Trump’s Iran Conflict

Congress Has Voted Four Times to Stop Trump’s Iran War. It Has Failed Every Time.
Four times in six weeks, Congress has voted to invoke the War Powers Resolution against
President Donald Trump’s military campaign in Iran. Four times it has failed, and as the legal
deadline approaches May 1, the 53-year-old law has no enforcement mechanism left to test.
The Senate rejected the latest war powers resolution Wednesday 52-47, with Sen. Rand Paul of
Kentucky the only Republican to cross party lines. One day later, the House voted 213-214 to
reject a parallel measure. Every Democrat except one voted to end the war. Nearly every
Republican voted to let it continue.
Trump launched Operation Epic Fury on February 28 without consulting Congress, killing
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and targeting ballistic missile sites, maritime
mining capabilities, air defenses and command and control facilities. Secretary of State Marco
Rubio called seven of the eight members of the Gang of Eight shortly before the strikes began.
The rest of Congress learned about the war when the public did.
Two days later, Trump sent Congress a formal notification citing Article II of the Constitution —
his authority as Commander in Chief — as the sole legal basis for the attack. The letter made
no reference to any Authorization for Use of Military Force and acknowledged that “it is not
possible at this time to know the full scope and duration of military operations that may be
necessary.”
The War Powers Resolution requires a president who introduces forces into hostilities to obtain
congressional authorization within 60 days or withdraw. That deadline falls around May 1.
Enforcement depends on Congress passing a veto-proof measure or cutting off funding.
Republicans control both chambers and have done neither.
The campaign has already produced American casualties, rising gas prices and a closure of the
Strait of Hormuz that disrupted global energy markets. Rep. Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican
and retired Air Force general, stated the legal position plainly: “By law, we got to either approve
continued operations or stop.” His party has so far chosen neither option.
Trump’s Iran campaign differs from previous cases where presidents found legal cover for
extended military action. Clinton ended Kosovo operations before the 90-day deadline. Obama
argued Libya airstrikes did not constitute hostilities under the WPR. Here, Trump has publicly
described the operation as a war, acknowledged American combat deaths, and offered no
timeline for withdrawal.
Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Rachel VanLandingham, who served as chief of international law at
U.S. Central Command, said the strikes “clearly violate the U.S. Constitution and the War
Powers Resolution.” The Brennan Center for Justice noted that four consecutive failed war
powers votes represent a level of congressional submission it called “new — and alarming.”

Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia said his caucus is preparing additional votes before and after the May
1 deadline. Courts have declined every war powers challenge for 50 years, consistently ruling
the question belongs to Congress, not the judiciary.
What the four failed votes have settled, at least for this conflict, is that Article II alone is sufficient
to sustain an open-ended military campaign against a sovereign nation as long as the
president’s party controls either chamber. Congress wrote the War Powers Resolution in 1973 to
prevent precisely that outcome. It did not write in a way that made the law self-enforcing, and 50 years of presidential resistance have confirmed that gap.