The United States Senate plans to vote this Wednesday on a resolution to limit President Donald Trump’s powers in the war against Iran, although the leaders of the Republican majority assure that the text is doomed to failure.
To votes to limit Trump
The vote will take place on the fifth day of a rapidly expanding regional conflict in which Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and several senior figures in Tehran, as well as American soldiers, have already died.
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The bipartisan resolution, presented by the Democrat Tim Kaine and the republican Rand Paulwould require the withdrawal of US forces from hostilities against Iran unless Congress authorizes the campaign.
The Senate is made up of 53 Republicans and 47 Democrats. If all senators vote, Democrats need at least four Republicans to join Paul. One Democrat, Pennsylvania centrist John Fetterman, has already said he will oppose it.
The resolution seeks to affirm the authority of Congress against a president who has expanded the control of the executive branch over the legislative branch since his return to the White House in January 2025.
At the center of the debate over the legality of the offensive ordered by Trump is the question of the “imminent threat.”
Limited military intervention
Because, although Congress is the only one authorized by the Constitution to declare war, a 1973 law allows the president to initiate a limited military intervention to respond to an emergency situation created by an attack against the United States.
In the video in which he announced the operation on Saturday, Trump mentioned precisely the “imminent” threat that, according to him, Iran represented, but he failed to convince the Democratic opposition about it.
“There was no evidence presented in that room… to suggest that the United States faced an imminent threat from Iran,” Kaine told AFP after a classified briefing on Tuesday with government officials.
Even if passed, the resolution would likely not survive a presidential veto, since a two-thirds vote in both chambers would then be necessary.
Democrats acknowledge that the text faces major obstacles, but consider it essential to force legislators to establish a public position on the war.
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