Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. Dan Caine discusses the mission details of a strike on Iran during a news conference at the Pentagon on June 22, 2025 in Arlington, Virginia. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
The U.S. Senate rejected Friday, 47-53, a resolution authored by Virginia Democrat Tim Kaine to block American forces from hostility against Iran.
Though a shaky ceasefire agreement between Iran and Israel has held this week, somewhat diminishing the urgency of the vote, proponents of the resolution made two major arguments during floor debate Friday: Congress should reassert its constitutional role as the only branch of government that can declare war and U.S. policy toward Iran should tilt more toward diplomacy.
“We all agree that Iran must not obtain a nuclear weapon,” Maryland Democrat Chris Van Hollen said. “But bombing is not the best, most sustainable way of achieving that goal. And nothing, nothing I heard yesterday at the (classified) intelligence briefing changes that assessment. The bombing attack was also a clear violation of the U.S. Constitution, which reserves to the Congress the power to declare war.”
The vote was nearly party-line, with Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman the only Democrat to vote against the measure and Rand Paul of Kentucky the only Republican in favor.
Supporters argue for congressional role
U.S. forces dropped bombs on three Iranian nuclear enrichment sites June 21 amid that country’s war with Israel.
President Donald Trump claimed an unqualified victory, though news reporting of intelligence assessments has shown the result was inconclusive and could have set Iran’s nuclear program back only a matter of months.
Military and intelligence officers provided the classified briefing to members of Congress Thursday.
Kaine, who has consistently called for presidents to win congressional authorization before taking offensive military action, said the framers of the Constitution deliberately gave the power to Congress.
“War is too big an issue to leave in the hands of even a completely careful and deliberative individual,” Kaine said. “The framers didn’t want to leave war in the hands of George Washington, for God’s sake. They thought Congress should be involved.”
Following the vote, Kaine said in a written statement he was upset with the senators who voted no.
“I am disappointed that many of my colleagues are not willing to stand up and say Congress needs to be part of a decision as important as whether or not the U.S. should send our nation’s sons and daughters to fight against Iran,” he said.
Paul, who has often clashed with his party on executive authority and other issues, made a constitutional argument and criticized the foreign policy that leads to active military engagement.
“The American people are sick and tired of sending their children to fight and die in war zones on the other side of the world with no tangible U.S. interest at stake,” he said. “Abdicating our constitutional responsibility by allowing the executive branch to unilaterally introduce U.S. troops into wars is an affront to the Constitution and to the American people.”
535 commanders in chief
Opponents of the resolution argued it would needlessly tie the president’s hands in matters of war.
The process required of going through Congress to approve military action would be too long to be practical, South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham said.
“Just think (of) the chaos that would ensue in this country if there were not one commander-in-chief, but 535, and we had to sit down and talk among ourselves and debate as to whether or not we should go forward with the military operation in question,” he said. “That would paralyze this country.”
Tennessee Republican Bill Hagerty said the operation was a success and the decision to order it was entirely within Trump’s constitutional power as commander-in-chief. Iran had been hostile to the U.S. and its ally Israel for decades, he said.
“President Trump’s actions last weekend did not start a war,” Haggerty said. “His actions ended a war, and not a single American life was lost. We should not be here debating how to constrain effective residential leadership, but rather discussing how to recognize effective leadership and supporting it.”
Constraining a president’s power undermines the ability to use the element of surprise that is crucial to modern warfare, Hagerty added.
The resolution “elevates process over common sense, policy and political optics over operational necessity,” he said.
