A bipartisan resolution that would block US President Donald Trump from launching further strikes on Iran failed to pass the Senate floor on Wednesday, as the Pentagon pledged to “accelerate” its actions in a war that’s “just getting started”.
In a 52-47 procedural vote on Wednesday, the Republican-controlled Senate blocked a war powers resolution aimed at curbing Trump’s ability to escalate military action against Iran, preventing the measure from reaching the floor for debate.
The resolution was introduced by more than 20 Democrats and Republican Senator Rand Paul on January 29, 2026. It asserted that Congress had the sole power to declare war under the US Constitution and demanded the removal of US armed forces from Iran that Congress had not authorised.
Advertisement
Democrat senator Tim Kaine, one of the lawmakers who introduced the resolution, wrote on Tuesday that Trump had unilaterally launched strikes at Iran without authorisation or articulating a clear strategy, dragging the US into “unnecessary forever wars”, and urged lawmakers to support the resolution to end the war.
“We must act to stop Trump’s belligerence. The American people will be watching how senators vote; history will judge this chamber for how we act,” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Wednesday on the Senate floor.
01:36
Thousands attend funeral for victims of Iranian school bombing, the deadliest incident in Iran war
Thousands attend funeral for victims of Iranian school bombing, the deadliest incident in Iran war
Republican lawmakers have largely sided with Trump in US attacks on Iran. House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Tuesday that the president is “well within his constitutional authority to do what he has done”, and “the idea that a few colleagues here would try to move a war powers motion and resolution to the floor right now is dangerous”.
