4 Republicans to back Senate war powers resolution, giving it a majority

It looks like the Senate will pass a resolution to restrict President Trump's military authority on Iran, following a similar vote from the House last week.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who introduced the resolution, said Tuesday he has the 51 votes necessary to get it passed. It's a bipartisan effort, considering there are only 47 Democrats in Congress' upper chamber. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) joined three of her GOP colleagues — Sens. Todd Young (R-Ind.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) — who had already announced they would back Kaine's bill.
The resolution came about after Trump approved an airstrike in Iraq earlier this month that killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, heightening already-simmering tensions between Tehran and Washington. Things have cooled down since then, but Congress is still trying to ensure the country isn't rushed into a major conflict. "This should be the hardest decision we make," Kaine said. "And because we're going to be ordering young men and women to risk their lives, we shouldn't do it unless we have the guts to have the debate." Tim O'Donnell
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.
-
How the online world relies on AWS cloud servers
The Explainer Chaos caused by Monday’s online outage shows that ‘when AWS sneezes, half the internet catches the flu’
-
Leonard and Hungry Paul: ‘beautiful, heartfelt’ television
The Week Recommends Julia Roberts narrates this ‘charming’ and ‘unexpectedly profound’ adaptation of Rónán Hession’s novel
-
Inside The Peninsula, London’s first billion-pound hotel
The Week Recommends As the capital’s super-luxury hotel scene continues to expand, the respected brand is still setting the standard
-
Trump nominee in limbo after racist texts leak
Speed Read Paul Ingrassia lost Republican support following the exposure of past racist text messages
-
Trump begins East Wing demolition for ballroom
speed read The president’s new construction will cost $250 million
-
Appeals court clears Trump’s Portland troop deployment
Speed Read A divided federal appeals court ruled that President Trump can send the National Guard to Portland
-
Millions turn out for anti-Trump ‘No Kings’ rallies
Speed Read An estimated 7 million people participated, 2 million more than at the first ‘No Kings’ protest in June
-
DOJ indicts John Bolton over classified files
Speed Read Continuing the trend of going after his political enemies, Trump prosecutes his former national security adviser
-
Trump, Putin set summit as Zelenskyy lands in DC
Speed Read Trump and Putin have agreed to meet in Budapest soon to discuss ending the war in Ukraine
-
Courts deal setbacks to Trump’s Chicago operations
Speed Read President Donald Trump cannot deploy the National Guard in Illinois
-
Pentagon reporters turn in badges after refusing rules
Speed Read They refused to sign a restrictive new press policy imposed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth