(WASHINGTON) — After a week in which more Republicans have emerged to call for an end to the war in Iran, the Senate failed to adopt a House-passed war powers resolution on Thursday by a vote of 49-50.
Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Rand Paul and Thom Tillis joined all but one Democrat, Sen. John Fetterman, in voting in favor of the resolution. Democratic Sen. Angela Alsobrooks did not vote. Democrats would’ve needed full attendance and five Republicans to vote with them in order for the resolution to pass.
The vote underscores the political tightrope vulnerable Republicans are attempting to walk with a little over a month until the midterm elections. While some Republican senators have grown increasingly critical of the war and its impact on diesel and gasoline prices, they have also stopped short of supporting measures that could directly challenge President Donald Trump’s policy.
For example, Republican Sen. Jon Husted, who is in a close race up against Democratic candidate Sherrod Brown, told POLITICO this week that the “war needs to come to an end as quickly as possible so that we can lower gas prices,” before voting against the war powers resolution on Thursday. Other Republicans who are also in tight reelection races voted to kill the resolution including Sens. Dan Sullivan and Roger Marshall.
Democrats did however pick up another Republican during this vote: Tillis, who voted for the resolution for the first time, citing a lack of concrete information on a solution to end the war.
“On July 10th, I heard the administration refer to the conflict in Iran as a war for the first time, and I arbitrarily use that date to say ‘I need to be briefed up over the next 60 days to be convinced that we’re tracking in the right direction.’ And the first outreach I got was last week,” Tillis said ahead of Thursday’s vote.
“They need to inform Congress more. They need to be clear on their strategic objectives, and they need to be more engaged. At least to the Armed Services Committee,” Tillis said, adding “the reason I’m inclined to vote on it today is to say, ‘it is time to engage Congress, folks, if we’re going to be there for the long term.'”
Trump initially estimated the war in Iran would last four to six weeks. Instead it’s nearing its eighth month and 50,000 American service members remain deployed in the region. Eighteen U.S. service members have been killed and over 800 wounded since the U.S. and Israel launched strikes against Iran.
The Senate has voted on an Iran War Powers Resolution 13 times, but has only passed it only once. The Senate first adopted a House-passed Iran War Powers resolution in late June when Sens. Collins, Murkowski, Paul and Bill Cassidy voted for it while Sens. Mitch McConnell and Dave McCormick missed the vote, clearing the way for the resolution’s passage.
The administration refused to make any changes with their strategy in Iran as a result of the resolution’s passage, calling the efforts “poorly timed and meaningless.”
However, since that June vote, the Senate has yet to pass another war powers resolution on Iran during its three attempts since then. That’s because Cassidy had previously flipped his vote back to voting against the resolution after a briefing with Trump administration officials following a contentious GOP meeting that Trump attended in June.
Cassidy, who argued he was undecided on how he would vote leading up to it, sidestepped reporters upon leaving the Capitol on Thursday, claiming he couldn’t talk because he was trying to make a flight out of town.
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