President Donald Trump is on the cusp of another potential setback from Congress in the war against Iran, and it could come at the hands of one of the Republicans he’s forcing into retirement: Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA).
The Senate heads into an uncertain vote Thursday on its latest attempt to end the conflict and require congressional approval following U.S. troop casualties. The math couldn’t be tighter for what will mark the 12th vote this year on a bipartisan Iran war powers resolution.
All eyes are on Cassidy, who was ousted from his primary reelection fight by Trump-backed Rep. Julia Letlow (R-LA) and has previously supported a resolution. But he declined to offer insight into which way he may be leaning.
“I am not commenting on that right now,” Cassidy told the Washington Examiner on the eve of the vote.
It could come down to Cassidy to break a 49-49 split, with only a simple majority required. Sen. Mitch McConnell remains absent because of health issues. There are three likely GOP defections from Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Rand Paul (R-KY). And Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) is expected to remain the only Democrat to oppose. Of the 11 resolutions that have occurred, 10 have failed and one passed both chambers.
Cassidy suggested the timing of the vote, which could amount to another unusual setback for Trump from the GOP-led Senate, is weighing heavily in his deliberations. The U.S. death toll from the war climbed to 18 in recent days after additional troop casualties from Iranian attacks in the Middle East.
“You got to be concerned about casualties,” Cassidy said. “The question is, how best to get through, because we got to get through this, right?”
The outgoing senator helped deliver a rare war powers rebuke last month on the resolution but later flipped his position against it in a subsequent vote that followed a shouting match with the president during a closed-door Senate GOP lunch. Paul also flipped his vote.
Democrats are forcing their latest resolution to spotlight what Murkowski criticized is becoming a “forever war.”
“Many people are now using that term, aren’t they?” she said.
Murkowski, a centrist Republican and frequent swing vote, took Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to task during a congressional hearing this week over the administration’s belief it does not need approval from lawmakers to continue the war. The administration has argued the 60-day clock for congressional approval under the 1973 War Powers Resolution resets each time a ceasefire occurs. Next week will mark five months since the war began Feb. 28.
“I look at the War Powers Resolution, and it’s not ambiguous. It requires the president to terminate hostilities within 60 days absent congressional authorization,” Murkowski told Hegseth. “Is the administration still taking that position about needing no authorization from Congress at this time?”
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Hegseth responded: “I know there’s a longstanding legal debate on this particular topic. We certainly, as a department, share the position of the White House that we have all the authorities necessary at this moment.”
Meanwhile, congressional Republicans are attempting to fulfill pleas from the Trump administration for more war funding through a third party-line reconciliation process that Senate leaders are skeptical can be accomplished before the November midterms. House Republicans’ $95 billion package includes up to roughly $73 billion that the administration could tap for war-related efforts.