Murkowski joins Democrats in failed bid to curb Trump on Iran

Lisa Murkowski’s break with her party was not enough to change the outcome. The Alaska Republican joined Democrats on Wednesday in a failed push to limit President Trump’s military authority against Iran, but the Senate still blocked the effort by a 49-50 vote, leaving Congress no closer to reasserting control over the conflict.

The vote was a motion to discharge Jeff Merkley’s Iran war powers resolution, S.J.Res. 184, from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Murkowski was joined in support by Republican Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine, while Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the lone Democrat to vote no. Even with that cross-party lineup, supporters could not overcome the procedural barrier that kept the resolution from reaching the floor for final action.

It was the seventh Senate attempt to curb Trump’s authority over the Iran conflict since the war began on Feb. 28, 2026, and the first vote after the 60-day War Powers Resolution window expired earlier in May. The law generally requires congressional authorization after 60 days of unauthorized hostilities, with a possible 30-day wind-down period, but the administration has argued that clock stopped after a ceasefire on April 7 and that hostilities had ended. Trump reinforced that position in a May 1 letter to congressional leaders saying the fighting was over.

Merkley and other Democrats rejected that reading, arguing the conflict remained unresolved and the clock had not stopped. Murkowski said she had expected more clarity from the administration after the deadline passed, but had not gotten it, and concluded it was time to support the measure so Congress could confront its responsibilities under the War Powers Resolution. She had opposed earlier versions of the resolution before shifting her vote.

Murkowski had already signaled her concern in a Senate floor speech on April 30, when she argued that Congress has a constitutional role in authorizing war and warned against open-ended military authority without oversight. Her vote on Wednesday gave the push its strongest bipartisan edge yet, but not enough to overcome the Senate’s reluctance to confront the White House directly on military force.

Earlier Senate votes on the Iran war powers question had already failed on March 4 by 47-53, then again on March 18, April 15, April 22 and April 30. The pattern left Wednesday’s 49-50 tally as the narrowest defeat so far, but still a defeat, and a reminder that even when lawmakers from both parties object, Congress can struggle to turn dissent into a binding check on presidential power.