Senate Democrats are preparing a series of war powers votes aimed at curbing President Donald Trump's authority to continue military operations against Iran — and forcing the administration to publicly defend its actions in the region.
Several Senate Democrats filed war powers resolutions last week meant to restrict Trump's continued conflict in the Middle East. The group says the administration has not shown enough evidence that the U.S. should have struck Iran in the first place, much less continue fighting in the region.
What the Left Is Saying
Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Cory Booker, D-N.J., Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., collectively filed five war powers resolutions last week. They were joined by Sens. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., and Tim Kaine, D-Va. Kaine has filed multiple resolutions to curb Trump's war authority since he took office for his second term.
"This Congress should be focused on the biggest military action since the Afghanistan war, and we're not even holding hearings on that," Booker told Fox News Digital.
Murphy said the resolutions could hit the Senate floor as soon as next week, and warned that if hearings are set in motion, Democrats would be able to "call up a vote every day on war powers and force at least a short debate and vote every day."
"There's no excuse to hide what the administration is doing from the public," Murphy said.
The group argued that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth should make the case for the war in Iran to the public and that closed-door, classified briefings on the matter weren't enough to convince them that the war was necessary.
Baldwin said she was not convinced by classified briefings. "I was absolutely not convinced. In fact, nothing was offered to show me that we were under imminent attack," Baldwin said. "That we were under imminent attack, or that it was reasonable to believe that we were at risk — and that's what would trigger the president's authority to use military force without coming to Congress first."
What the Right Is Saying
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Jim Risch, R-Idaho, wouldn't say whether he had requested Rubio to appear before his panel but blamed Senate Democrats for helping the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
"You'll notice the Democrats are the only entity on this planet who are helping the IRGC," Risch told Fox News Digital, referring to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., acknowledged that Democrats' strategy would eat away at floor time but said the outcome may depend on how the conflict progresses. "We'll see how the next few days in the conflict go," Thune said.
Thune noted that "there always are" hearings and pointed out that the Senate Armed Services Committee would be holding hearings soon on the annual National Defense Authorization Act. "So they're going to have all those folks coming through on a fairly routine basis anyway, and I'm sure this will be a subject of discussion," Thune said.
What the Numbers Show
Six Senate Democrats have filed five separate war powers resolutions targeting Trump's authority on Iran. Two of the filers — Murphy and Kaine — have been particularly active in filing war powers resolutions against Trump since his second term began.
The resolutions seek to require congressional authorization for continued military operations against Iran, invoking the War Powers Resolution of 1973 which requires presidents to obtain congressional approval for military engagements lasting longer than 60 days without such authorization.
If Democrats follow through on their threat to call up war powers votes daily, it would mark one of the most significant uses of Senate floor tactics to force debate on a foreign policy issue in recent memory.
The Bottom Line
The standoff sets up a potential Senate showdown over war powers and executive authority in the coming week. Democrats are demanding public hearings with Rubio and Hegseth before they will allow the resolutions to proceed quietly, while Republicans control both chambers and the White House.
The chairs of the Senate Armed Services and Senate Foreign Relations committees had already requested that Rubio and Hegseth testify, though it remains unclear whether formal hearing dates have been scheduled. The White House has not publicly responded to the Democrats' demands.
What to watch: Whether Senate leadership can broker a compromise on hearings, or whether Democrats follow through on their threat to slow the Senate to a crawl with daily war powers votes. The outcome could shape how Congress exercises its constitutional war powers oversight role for the remainder of this congressional session.