The Senate has approved a War Powers Resolution aimed at curbing President Donald Trump’s military authority regarding Iran, which also mandates the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the conflict.
On Tuesday, the Senate voted 50-48 in favor of a resolution directing President Trump to “withdraw U.S. forces from hostilities against the Islamic Republic of Iran,” CBS News reported.
This resolution is termed “contemporaneous,” indicating it does not need President Trump’s endorsement to take effect.
Support for the resolution came from Republican Senators Susan Collins, Bill Cassidy, Lisa Murkowski, and Rand Paul, who joined Senate Democrats, while Senator John Fetterman was opposed.
The Senate’s approval followed a similar decision by the House of Representatives on June 3 after several previous attempts to pass it had failed.
In a video posted by CSPAN, Senator Risch voiced his opposition, stating, “I’m going to encourage you to vote no on this. This is wrong on a number of levels, starting with the fact that the concurrent resolution process that this endeavor is attempting was ruled unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court. So whatever happens with this, it’s not going to have any effect. The president won’t pay any attention to it. That’s one thing,” he argued. “The second problem with this is the directive to exclude U.S. forces from hostilities. There are no forces at this point that are hostile to Iran.”
“The third thing, and the most important thing, is that a vote on this, whether it passes or not, sends a message to Iran,” Risch continued. “If this passes, the Iranians will just stand up and walk away from the negotiations. They’ll walk away saying, ‘This is over, Congress told the president of the United States to leave us alone. We can do whatever we want.'”
