WASHINGTON-(MaraviPost)-Senators blocked an effort on Friday to restrict President Trump’s ability to go to war with Iran, handing a victory to Republicans and the White House.
Senators voted 50-40 on the proposal from Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine(Va.) and Tom Udall (N.M.) to block the president from using funding to carry out military action without congressional authorization.
Sixty yes votes would have been required to get the amendment added to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
In a round of unusual procedural maneuvering, senators passed the mammoth defense bill on Thursday, but agreed to add the Kaine-Udall proposal retroactively if they could secure the votes.
The vote comes amid growing tensions between the United States and Iran.
Trump warned earlier this week that if Iran attacked “anything American” that he would respond with “great and overwhelming force,” including “in some areas … obliteration.”
Trump’s tweet comes days after he acknowledged that he called off strikes late last week because he believed they were “not proportionate” to Iran’s downing of a U.S. surveillance drone.
