The Senate has declined to force an end to American military operations against Iran, defeating a war powers resolution that would have directed President Donald Trump to halt the campaign. The Sept. 24 vote keeps Congress on record as unwilling to override the administration’s conduct of the war, even as the conflict’s costs and its impact on fuel prices dominate the closing weeks of the midterm campaign.

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From The Epoch Times:

The U.S. Senate voted on Sept. 24 against a war powers resolution that would have directed President Donald Trump to end the U.S. military action against Iran.

The Senate’s 49–50 vote on House Concurrent Resolution 89 comes nearly seven months after the start of the U.S. military’s Operation Epic Fury and just weeks before the midterm election. Sept. 24 marked the 14th time the Senate had considered a war powers resolution since the start of the conflict with Iran.

Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) joined Democrats in support of the measure on Sept. 24. Meanwhile, Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) voted with Republicans to reject the resolution.

The measure originated in the House, where Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington introduced it in April. The House passed it on July 23, and separately approved a similar resolution on Sept. 15 by a vote of 220 to 204 aimed at limiting the president’s authority to direct military action against the Iranian regime. The House had passed two earlier war powers resolutions calling for an end to the conflict.

On the Senate floor, Democratic senators framed the vote as a constitutional question and a matter of ordinary Americans’ finances. Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin said the country deserves better than an endless  that costs American lives and makes it harder for families to get by at home. Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont called the conflict a day-to-day catastrophe and said the man who started it must end it, adding that senators have a say and that it was time to say plainly that the war should end now. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia argued that the Constitution grants the power to declare war to Congress alone, that no such declaration has been made, and that the president is violating the Constitution.

The White House rejected that framing. Spokesperson Anna Kelly told The Epoch Times that politicians in the United States and abroad have warned about a nuclear Iran for decades, and that only Trump has had the courage to confront the threat directly. She said the administration has been fully transparent with Congress throughout the conflict and negotiations, with senior officials providing more than 30 bipartisan briefings to the Hill since late February.

The resolutions carry symbolic weight rather than binding force. The War Powers Resolution of 1973 limits a president’s authority to sustain military action beyond 60 days without congressional approval, but the administration maintains the law is unconstitutional and that such resolutions require the president’s signature to take effect. The Senate has now considered war powers measures repeatedly, including a June 23 vote that passed 50 to 48 before being reversed the following day after Trump confronted Republican senators who had initially backed it.

Trump addressed the conflict directly in a Sept. 22 speech to the United Nations General Assembly, saying he faced a major decision: whether a deal would allow Iran to rebuild and become perhaps one of the strongest nations in the Middle East, or whether he would annihilate the Islamic Republic quickly and deny it the chance to kill and destroy again. He also said he expects the United States and Iran to reach an agreement ending the war after the November midterms.

Affordability, particularly at the pump, has become a central campaign issue. As of Sept. 24, AAA reported the average price of a regular gallon of gasoline at $4.48 and diesel at $6.51. Murkowski told reporters that even an immediate end to the conflict would not restore conditions to what they were before the war began in February, saying that is simply how global oil markets function. She suggested the administration should have weighed the full consequences of the war, including the possibility that Iran would try to close the Strait of Hormuz, and noted that the coming midterms were no secret to anyone making those decisions.

Scripture places the power to wage war in the hands of governing authorities, but it also calls those authorities to weigh the cost in human life with sober judgment rather than ambition (Luke 14:31-32; Proverbs 21:31). The constitutional argument at the heart of this vote is not a technicality. It is a question about who decides when a nation goes to war and how long its sons and daughters remain in harm’s way. As intercessors, let us pray for the president and for every member of Congress as they weigh matters of war and peace, for protection over American service members deployed in the region, and for the Iranian people, many of whom live under a regime that has long oppressed them. Let us pray that any agreement reached would serve genuine stability rather than reward a government that has spent decades pursuing nuclear weapons and sponsoring terror.

How are you praying about this issue? Share your prayers and scriptures in the comments below.

(Excerpt from The Epoch Times. Photo Credit: svetlanafoote / Canva Pro).