By Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Republican-led U.S. Senate rejected a Democratic-led bid on Friday to block President Donald Trump from using further military force against Iran, hours after the president said he would consider more bombing.
The Senate vote was 53 to 47 against a war powers resolution that would have required congressional approval for more hostilities against Iran. The vote was along party lines, except Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman voted no, with Republicans, and Kentucky Republican Rand Paul voted yes, with Democrats.
Senator Tim Kaine, chief sponsor of the resolution, has tried for years to wrest back Congress’ authority to declare war from both Republican and Democratic presidents.
Kaine said his latest effort underscored that the U.S. Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the sole power to declare war and requires that any hostility with Iran be explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or specific authorization for the use of military force.
“If you think the president should have to come to Congress, whether you are for or against a war in Iran, you’ll support Senate Joint Resolution 59, you’ll support the Constitution that has stood the test of time,” Kaine said in a speech before the vote.
Lawmakers have been pushing for more information about weekend U.S. strikes on Iran, and the fate of Iran’s stockpiles of highly enriched uranium.
Earlier on Friday, Trump sharply criticized Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, dropped plans to lift sanctions on Iran, and said he would consider bombing Iran again if Tehran is enriching uranium to worrisome levels.
He was reacting to Khamenei’s first remarks after a 12-day conflict with Israel that ended when the United States launched bombing raids against Iranian nuclear sites.
‘OBLITERATED’
Members of Trump’s national security team held classified briefings on the strikes for the Senate and House of Representatives on Thursday and Friday. Many Democratic lawmakers left the briefings saying they had not been convinced that Iran’s nuclear facilities had been “obliterated,” as Trump announced shortly after the raid.
Opponents of the resolution said the strike on Iran was a single, limited operation within Trump’s rights as commander-in-chief, not the start of sustained hostilities.
Senator Bill Hagerty, a Tennessee Republican who served as ambassador to Japan during Trump’s first term, said the measure could prevent any president from acting quickly against a country that has been a long-term adversary.
“We must not shackle our president in the middle of a crisis when lives are on the line,” Hagerty said before the vote.
Trump has rejected any suggestion that damage to Iran’s nuclear program was not as profound as he has said. Iran says its nuclear research is for civilian energy production.
Under U.S. law, Senate war powers resolutions are privileged, meaning that the chamber had to promptly consider and vote on the measure, which Kaine introduced this month.
But to be enacted, the resolution would have had to pass the Senate as well as the House of Representatives, where Speaker Mike Johnson, a close Trump ally, said this week he did not think it was the right time for such an effort.
During Trump’s first term, in 2020, Kaine introduced a similar resolution to rein in the Republican president’s ability to wage war against Iran. That measure passed both the Senate and House of Representatives, with some Republican support, but did not garner enough votes to survive the president’s veto.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Leslie Adler and Diane Craft)
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