War Powers

Congress Declines Again To Rein in Trump's Iran War

Republicans can’t decide whether the war is too early to stop, too late to stop, or nonexistent in the first place.

Matthew Petti | 4.16.2026 12:29 PM

Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL Add Reason to Google

Media Contact & Reprint Requests

(Graeme Sloan/Sipa USA/Newscom/BONNIE CASH/UPI/Michael Brochstein/ZUMAPRESS/Andrew Leyden)

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Jim Risch (R–Idaho) has never believed that now is the right time to vote on war with Iran. "There is no clear line of delineation between actual war and the use of kinetic force," he said during a war powers debate in 2020, adding that President Donald Trump has used force "very sparingly" against Iran. "This is not the start of a forever war," Risch said after Trump launched a one-off air raid against Iran in June 2025.

Now that Trump has started an undeniable, no-kidding war with no clear ending, Risch believes that a war powers resolution would unfairly tell the President to "put your tail between your legs and run."

Risch got what he wanted on Wednesday night when the Senate voted 47–52 against a war powers resolution, which would have forced the president to either get congressional approval for the war or end it. It was the fourth attempt to pass a war powers resolution in the Senate since the war began. Every single one went exactly the same way: All Republicans except libertarian-adjacent Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.) voted for the war, and all Democrats except the pro-Israel heavyweight Sen. John Fetterman (D–Pa.) voted against the war.

On Thursday morning, the same resolution failed in the House of Representatives in the same way, with every Democrat except Rep. Jared Golden (D–Maine) voting to end the war, and every Republican except for the libertarian-adjacent Rep. Thomas Massie (R–Ky.) voting to continue it.

The U.S. and Iran have agreed to a temporary ceasefire to allow for peace talks. After walking out of negotiations last weekend, the Trump administration declared it was enforcing a blockade on Iranian ports. Trump and his advisers insist that they are ready to resume........

© Reason.com