For the First Time in History, Both Chambers of Congress Passed a War Powers Resolution to Stop a President's War — Trump's Own Party Helped Do It

On June 23, 2026, Congress did something it had never done in the 53 years since the War Powers Act became law: both chambers passed a resolution ordering a sitting president to end a war.

The war was Trump's. The president's own party helped end-run him.

The vote

The Senate adopted the resolution 50-48, directing the president to "remove United States Armed Forces from hostilities against the Islamic Republic of Iran" unless Congress declares war or authorizes the use of military force.

It was the tenth time the Senate had tried to stop the war. Nearly every week they were in session, Senate Democrats had brought a war powers resolution to the floor, and every previous time it had failed in the narrowly split, Republican-controlled chamber. This time it passed.

Four Republicans crossed the aisle:

• Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME)
• Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
• Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA)
• Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)

One Democrat, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), voted against. Two Republicans who had blocked earlier attempts — Mitch McConnell and Dave McCormick — did not vote, and their absences helped the measure clear the chamber.

The House had already acted

The Senate was adopting a measure the House had already passed on June 3, by a vote of 215-208. Four House Republicans broke with Trump there too: Brian Fitzpatrick, Tom Barrett (R-MI), Warren Davidson (R-OH), and Thomas Massie (R-KY).

Fitzpatrick explained his vote in the plainest possible terms:

"We have to follow the law. We're past the 60 days, so you have two choices. You either follow the law or you change the law. You can't violate the law. That's not an option."

Why this one is different

This is the first time a war powers resolution has cleared both chambers of Congress. The structure matters:

• It is a concurrent resolution — it does not require the president's signature
• Trump vetoed war powers resolutions in 2019 and 2020 during his first term — but those were structured to require his signature, so a veto killed them
• Carl Tobias of the University of Richmond: "This is the first both chambers of Congress have approved a concurrent resolution to end the conflict" — "symbolic," but sending "a strong political message to the president"

The practical force is limited and the administration disputes the War Powers Act's constitutionality. But the political fact is unambiguous: a Republican Congress formally told a Republican president to stop his own war.

Kaine led it

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), who brought the measure to the floor, has spent years arguing Congress abdicated its most basic constitutional duty:

"The most solemn power for Congress is Congress has the power to declare war, not the president."

Kaine pushed the vote even though talks with Iran were ongoing in Switzerland over the June 17 memorandum of understanding. He argued the pause in fighting was exactly the right time for Congress to step back and assess "what should the next chapter be."

He also pointed to the bill the war had run up. The administration had requested $80 billion in emergency spending to rebuild munitions stockpiles depleted since the conflict began on Feb. 28.

Trump's reaction

Trump dismissed the House vote as "a meaningless vote" and turned on the Republicans who defied him. On Truth Social, after the House passed its version:

"Yesterday, in a meaningless vote, the House voted, 4 bad Republicans and all of the Dumocrats, to limit my War Powers, right in the middle of my final negotiations to end the War with the Islamic Republic of Iran."

He went on:

"The Democrats are fueled by Trump Derangement Syndrome. They would rather have our Country fail than give me another, of many, victories. The four Republicans, that's a whole other story — They're GRANDSTANDERS!"

The Republican defense of Trump

Senate Foreign Relations Chairman James Risch (R-ID) warned the vote would blow up the talks:

"If this passes, the Iranians are going to simply stand up and walk away from negotiations."

He also called it futile, expecting Trump to ignore it entirely: "It's going to have no effect. The president isn't going to pay any attention to it."

That is the position the war left Trump's defenders in: the resolution is simultaneously so dangerous it will collapse the negotiations and so meaningless the president can ignore it.

What it actually represents

Set aside the symbolism. The reason this vote could happen at all is the war itself:

• The U.S. intelligence community had assessed there was no imminent threat requiring war
• The conflict began Feb. 28 and ran past the War Powers Act's 60-day limit with no congressional authorization
• It cost enough that the administration came back asking for $80 billion to refill the magazine
• It ended in a memorandum of understanding that critics across the spectrum called a strategic defeat — Iran reopening a strait it had closed, in exchange for sweeping U.S. concessions
• And it pushed enough members of Trump's own party to the point that, for the first time in history, Congress formally voted to make a president stop a war

A president starts a war his own intelligence said wasn't necessary, blows past the legal deadline, asks for $80 billion to clean up after it, and gets formally rebuked by a Congress his party controls — with members of that party providing the margin. That is the failure. The resolution is just the receipt.