Democrats fail to shatter Republicans' resolve on eve of crucial Iran deadline
Senate Democrats again failed to splinter Republicans’ unified support for President Donald Trump’s conflict with Iran amid the looming Friday deadline to curb his war powers.
The vote marks the sixth time Republicans have rejected a Democrat-led resolution aimed at handcuffing the president’s authority and halting the conflict. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., made one final push to limit Trump ahead of the deadline requiring Congress to decide whether the U.S. should or should not continue fighting in the Middle East.
Sixty days after Trump’s first notification to Congress of his strikes in Iran is when lawmakers are supposed to either authorize or halt the war. That deadline hits Friday, May 1, when lawmakers are expected to be gone from Washington, D.C., for a weeklong recess.
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While some Republicans have raised issue with extending the conflict past the 60-day mark and are mulling an Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), Schiff said that side effort was "too late.
"The mere introduction of one is not sufficient," Schiff said. "And there's no way that's going to pass both houses and get signed by the president today."
Meanwhile, Republicans argue that Trump has unilateral authority, without Congress’ explicit say-so, to continue the war for 30 more days. However, that window is meant to be a drawdown period to pull out military assets and prevent a sudden and possibly chaotic exit rather than continue a raging and active conflict.
So far, Trump’s move to indefinitely extend the ceasefire in the region has held.
For now, it appears there isn’t a desire to put an authorization vote on the floor. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has deferred that decision to his Republican colleagues, rather than unilaterally force the issue.
"At this point, I don't see that," Thune said. "I mean, I think they're, you know, obviously getting readouts from our military leadership on a somewhat regular basis that, I think, will be helpful in terms of shaping the views of our members about how comfortable they are with … everything that's happening there and the direction heading forward. But as of right now, I'm not hearing that."
The decision to punt Congress’ authority comes as Secretary of War Pete Hegseth this week made his first appearance on Capitol Hill since the war began.
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Though his hearings before the House and Senate Armed Services committees were billed as an opportunity to dig into the Pentagon’s eye-popping $1.5 trillion budget request, lawmakers instead used their time to grill Hegseth on the Iran war.
One made-for-TV back-and-forth included the revelation that the war has so far cost taxpayers $25 billion.
Democrats contend that figure doesn’t add up and argue that the money could be spent elsewhere to combat rising costs for Americans.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said it was past time for Republicans to break from the administration, and he blamed Trump and Hegseth for the ongoing war.
"Our greatest challenge in Iran is Donald Trump and Secretary Hegseth, and Americans know it," Schumer said. "The war is unpopular. They blame Trump for it, of course."
"The greatest obstacle to peace is the incompetence of the Secretary of Defense and of the President of the United States," he continued.