Tim Kaine Proposes War Powers Resolution to Block American Support for War with Iran

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) on Monday proposed a war powers resolution that would block American support for war with Iran without congressional authorization.

“It is not in our national security interest to get into a war with Iran unless that war is absolutely necessary to defend the United States. I am deeply concerned that the recent escalation of hostilities between Israel and Iran could quickly pull the United States into another endless conflict,” the Democrat senator, a member of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committee, said in a written statement.

An explosion is seen during a missile attack in Tel Aviv, Israel, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Tomer Neuberg)

He continued:

The American people have no interest in sending servicemembers to fight another forever war in the Middle East. This resolution will ensure that if we decide to place our nation’s men and women in uniform into harm’s way, we will have a debate and vote on it in Congress.

War powers resolutions are privileged, meaning that Congress’s upper chamber is required to promptly consider and vote on the resolution. The resolution would reaffirm that Congress has the sole power to declare war, per the Constitution.

“The resolution requires that any hostilities with Iran must be explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or specific authorization for use of military force, but would not prevent the United States from defending itself from imminent attack. The resolution will ensure a public debate and vote in Congress as intended by the framers of the Constitution,” the press release from Kaine’s office stated.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) on Sunday said the recent conflict has exposed who is “real America First/MAGA” and those “slobbering for the U.S. to become fully involved in the Israel/Iran war.”

U.S. Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene speaking with attendees at The People’s Convention at Huntington Place in Detroit, Michigan. on June 15, 2024. (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)

She wrote in a lengthy post on X:

Real America First/MAGA wants world peace for all people and doesn’t want our military killed and forever injured physically and mentally. We love our U.S. military and love them helping to secure our borders and our cities for the defense of OUR PEOPLE AND OUR COUNTRY. They are our friends, spouses, cousins, nieces, nephews, sisters, brothers, sons, and daughters.

We have spent TRILLIONS in the Middle East and we have dealt with the aftermath of death, blown apart bodies, never ending suicides, and disabling PTSD. All because they told us propaganda as to why we must sacrifice our own to defend some other country’s borders and some other country’s borders. I don’t want to see Israel bombed or Iran bombed or Gaza bombed. I don’t want to see Ukraine bombed or Russia bombed. And we do NOT want to be involved or required to pay for ANY OF IT!!!

She also questioned if Iran is truly “days away” from obtaining a nuclear bomb, sharing that “for decades” authorities have claimed Iran was soon obtaining a nuclear bomb:

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard in March testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee, declaring that Iran is not currently building a nuclear weapon.

Rosemary Kelanic, the director of the Middle East program at Defense Priorities, a foreign policy think tank, wrote in an op-ed for the New York Times that war with Iran would be a “catastrophe”:

A war with Iran would be a catastrophe, the culminating failure of decades of regional overreach by the United States and exactly the sort of policy that Mr. Trump has long railed against. The United States would gain nothing from fighting a weak country halfway around the globe that causes problems in its region but does not pose a critical security threat to us. And the United States would lose much: most tragically, the lives of U.S. service members, along with any chance of escaping our tortured past in the region.