Emergency responders work at the site of an American-Israeli attack on a residential building that also destroyed the adjacent Rafi Nia Synagogue in Tehran, Iran, on April 7, 2026. (Photo by Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON – Senate Republicans and one Democrat reiterated their support for President Donald Trump’s war in Iran after blocking for the fifth time a resolution that would force the president to seek congressional approval for further action in the Middle East.
The vote failed 46-51largely following the same divide as previous failed measures. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., opposed the resolution to rein in Trump, and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., voted for it, as he has four times before.
Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, David McCormick, R-Pa., and Mark Warner, D-Va. were missing.
Thirteen U.S. soldiers and thousands of civilians across the Middle East have died in the war, which the Trump administration says is about regime change and ending Iran’s nuclear program.
As of Wednesday, the Pentagon updated the number of American troops injured in the conflict at 400.
Fetterman and all but one Senate Republican blocked the measure a day after Trump expanded a ceasefire with Iran after the prospect of a second round of peace talks failed. Trump did not give an end date for extending the ceasefire, but announced that the United States would not end its blockade of ships traveling to and from Iranian ports.
Trump claimed behind schedule Tuesday night that Iran is “financially collapsing!”
“They want the Strait of Hormuz opened immediately. They’re starving for cash! They’re losing $500 million a day. Military and police complain they’re not getting paid. SOS!!!” He wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.
US forces fired on and confiscated a sanctioned Iranian cargo ship on Sunday.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi, wrote Tuesday on X. that the seizure was “an act of war and therefore a violation of the ceasefire.”
Early Wednesday, Iran claimed responsibility for attacking two merchant ships in the Strait of Hormuz, a key narrow sea passage through which a fifth of the world’s oil flowed before the war. Iranian MP Ebrahim Rezaei explained on X: “An eye for an eye, oil tanker for oil tanker.”
Baldwin leads the opposition to the war
Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., lead sponsor of Wednesday’s War Powers resolutionsaid ahead of the vote that Trump had sold Americans “a bad record” as he advocated for cutting costs and refraining from starting fresh foreign wars.
“This war has set us back and created more problems for the people I work for,” she said, citing rising fuel and fertilizer costs as a result of the standoff in the Strait of Hormuz.
The latest inflation figures from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reflected one Increase of 21% in fuel costs from February to March.
One gallon of regular gasoline stayed According to AAA, the average price nationwide is just over $4.
According to several media outlets, United Airlines announced on Wednesday that it would raise airfares by up to 20% to offset the cost of jet fuel Reports.
Brent crude, the global oil market’s standard, rose again on Wednesday to over $100 a barrel numerous Times since the beginning of the American-Israeli war in Iran.
“Less than two months ago, oil prices were normal, the Strait of Hormuz was open, trading was ongoing,” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said before the vote.
“And then President Trump made the decision without justification, without a plan, without consulting with allies, without consulting with Congress or seeking a vote from Congress, to drag the country into another war in the Middle East. And the whole world suffers,” Kaine said.
Trump entered the joint war against Iran alongside Israel on February 28th.
Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said passing the resolution was “unwise.”
“We recently conducted these votes, and since our last vote on this matter, there has been no significant change in either the composition of this body or the situation in Iran or the Middle East,” the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said before the vote on the floor.
Wicker was the only Republican to speak against the resolution during Wednesday afternoon’s debate.
Earlier voting
Senate Democrats recently forced a vote to stop Trump’s actions in Iran April 15thjust days after the president threatened on social media that Iran’s “entire civilization” and to bomb its power plants and bridges.
Senate Democrats say they did no plans to stop Introducing War Powers resolutions and speaking out against war.
Several sent a letter On Sunday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth demanded answers to “disturbing allegations of incidents of civilian harm,” including an attack on an elementary school that killed more than 160 children on the opening day of the war.
“We fear that these were all preventable tragedies. The high death toll of this war reflects the government’s general disregard for the strategic, legal and moral imperative to minimize harm to civilians,” the senators wrote.
The letter, led by Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., was also signed by Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M.; Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii; Tina Smith, D-Minn.; Mark Kelly, D-Ariz.; Raphael Warnock, D-Ga.; Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.; Kirsten Gillibrand, DN.Y.; Peter Welch, D-Vt. and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent who aligns with the Democrats.
The 11 senators who joined Baldwin in supporting the War Powers Resolution on Wednesday, a remnant of Congress’ efforts to rein in President Richard Nixon during the Vietnam War, included Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senators Gillibrand, Kaine, Merkley and Van Hollen, and Adam Schiff, D-Calif.; Chris Murphy, D-Conn.; Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill.; Andy Kim, DN.J.; Cory Booker, DN.J.; and Mark Kelly, D-Arizona.
