The Senate narrowly rejected a bill Thursday that would have called for an end to the war between the United States and Iran.
The chamber voted 49-50 in favor of the latest resolution calling for an end to the war.
All but four Republicans voted against the bill, despite concerns that Republican candidates would face the aftermath of the war’s economic costs in the November midterm elections.
The Republicans who voted in favor of the resolution were Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky. Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman was the only Democrat to vote against the bill.
Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, D-Maryland, did not vote despite being in the Senate early Thursday. Alsobrooks has voted in favor of similar resolutions before. But if she had voted that way again Thursday, the resolution would still have failed.
“Senator Allsbrooks has voted to end the war in Iran 13 times. Unfortunately, she was unable to vote to end the war in Iran for the 14th time because she was dealing with urgent family matters during today’s vote,” Meredith Happy, a spokeswoman for Sen. Allsbrooks, said in a statement to CNBC. “She believes every day that this war is escalating and Americans are paying the price for it at gas stations and grocery stores. And too many American service members are paying it with their lives. She continues to call on the president to end this war once and for all.”
A vote in favor of the bill, known as the War Powers Resolution, would direct President Donald Trump to withdraw U.S. troops from hostilities in Iran unless Congress explicitly authorizes war.
The Senate has voted on similar bills repeatedly since the war began, and approved one of them. The White House effectively ignored the vote, arguing that the War Powers Act was unconstitutional.
The bill voted on Thursday was a so-called “concurrent resolution” like the one that was adopted, but it has no legal force and was not signed by the president, making the vote largely symbolic, even if it passed.
But pro-legislative Democratic leaders argue that the Constitution vests the power to declare war in Congress, not the executive branch, and that the president must abide by their disapproval whether he signs the Constitution or not.
“The president is now violating the Constitution, the War Powers Act, and the concurrent resolutions he has already passed,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, who led many votes to end the war.
“We don’t need to do it a second time because the president is supposed to follow the law, but we’re doing it a second time on the theory that maybe in a few months more people will join. The American people are even more deeply opposed to this war.”
The bill passed the House in July and was just shy of the 50-vote threshold for passage in the Senate. Democrats have seen increased Republican support in recent votes to end the war, as the administration largely ignored the timeline in seeking Congressional authorization for the conflict.
The war has also created a difficult political environment for incumbent Republicans, who could lose their House and Senate majorities in the midterm elections, which are less than six weeks away.
Gasoline prices, which soared during the conflict, now average $4.48 per gallon nationwide, according to AAA. Rising diesel prices have recently begun to stress farmers and truck drivers, alarming Republicans in Midwestern states who are distancing themselves from the White House and calling for an end to the war.
Lawmakers will be campaigning for most of October and will need to explain to voters what they are doing to lower prices.
Asked how Republicans can get their message across to economically worried voters, Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said, “There’s a lot of good stuff to talk about. The problem is, there’s been so little recognition for what you’ve done for me lately.” “The other thing we should talk about is that at least we are not socialists.”
