In a 50 to 47 vote, a majority of the U.S. Senate voted this evening for the first time to discharge the War Powers Resolution from committee, so that it can now be brought to the floor for a vote on the resolution itself. This, then, was a procedural vote, but one that had failed numerous times before. It passed today with the support of four Republicans: Senators Rand Paul of Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, and, unexpectedly, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana—the Senator whom President Donald Trump thought he had pushed out of his way by engineering his defeat in the May 16th Republican primary.
The resolution, sponsored by Virginia’s Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, asserts that “Congress hereby directs the President to remove the United States Armed Forces from hostilities within or against Iran, unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or a specific authorization for use of military force.”
