Republican senators on Wednesday blocked Sen. Cory Booker from forcing a final vote on a resolution to curb President Donald Trump’s ability to continue waging the illegal US-Israeli war on Iran without congressional authorization.
“All of us—all 100—swore an oath to the Constitution,” Booker (D-NJ) said on the Senate floor ahead of Wednesday’s 47-53 vote against the measure. “The Constitution is clear. Congress has the authority to declare war and authorize the use of military force, but in this case, Congress and the United States Senate in particular has done nothing.”
“This is why I urge my colleagues soon to support the motion to discharge Senate Joint Resolution 118,” Booker continued. “I ask for that because of what is at stake: Billions of taxpayer dollars. Hundreds of American lives. What is at stake is the Constitution of the United States of America.”
All 100 Senators swore an oath not to Donald Trump, but to the Constitution. That’s why I’m fighting in the Senate tonight to end this reckless war.
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— Sen. Cory Booker (@booker.senate.gov) March 18, 2026 at 3:24 PM
The resolution would have ordered the “removal of United States armed forces from hostilities within or against the Islamic Republic of Iran that have not been authorized by Congress.”
“We swore an oath. We have an obligation.This is the moment now,” the senator added. “This is not left or right; this is a moral moment and a solemn, sacred, patriotic duty to uphold the Constitution—especially when the president of the United States is so willfully violating it.”
Every Democrat except Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania voted to advance Booker’s resolution. Every Republican with the exception of Rand Paul of Kentucky voted “no.” Both Independent senators—Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Maine’s Angus King—voted “yes.”
Earlier this month, Fetterman joined all upper chamber Republicans save Paul in blocking a war powers resolution aimed at reining in Trump’s US-Israeli war on Iran.
On Sunday, Booker said that “both parties have been feckless in allowing the growth of the power of the presidency.”
"At this scale, at this magnitude, at this cost, why is Congress just laying down and doing nothing?” he added.
Undaunted by Wednesday’s defeat, Booker vowed to introduce similar resolutions “again and again and again as more Americans on both sides of the aisle see this war for what it is: one president’s decision costing all Americans.”
According to a poll published Wednesday by the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, nearly 8 in 10 Trump voters want the war to end quickly.
“Even after this vote, there are many of us here in this body who will fight to uphold the Constitution,” Booker said.
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