On Wednesday, March 4, 2026, the Senate failed to advance a War Powers Resolution aimed at limiting President Donald Trump’s executive powers, requiring the president to seek congressional authorization before taking any further action in Iran.
The results were 47-53, falling mostly along party lines, with the legislation’s cosponsor, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), being the only Republican to vote in favor, and Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) the only Democrat to vote against the measure.
“This essentially is the vote whether to go to war or not,” Sen. Paul told reporters.
If passed, the legislation would have prohibited further U.S. military force in Iran without the approval of Congress under the 1973 War Powers Act. The bill, passed during the Vietnam War, grants Congress a legal check on executive war powers.
The legislation also orders the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of U.S. military deployment and demands that any operations cease within 60 days unless Congress approves or extends them.
The House is scheduled to vote on a similar resolution on Thursday, March 5, 2026, but it is expected to fail within the Republican-led chamber.
The vote comes after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed that, for the first time since World War II, the U.S. had sunk an enemy ship, revealing that a torpedo from a U.S. submarine sank an Iranian warship. Hegseth also shared that the U.S. and Israel are days away from controlling Iranian airspace, affirming that “we have only just begun to hunt, dismantle, demoralize, destroy, and defeat their capabilities.”
Democrats argue that Congress needs to re-establish its power to declare war and interfere with President Trump’s efforts to act unilaterally.
"Trump is lying to the American people as he launches an illegal, regime-change war against Iran," Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), a member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, expressed in a statement preceding the vote. "This is endangering American lives and has already resulted in mass civilian casualties. This is not making us safer and only damages the U.S. and our interests."
Republicans, on the other hand, have shown increased support for the joint kinetic strikes that killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and targeted Tehran’s defense systems.
