Senate Democrats on Tuesday blocked the advancement of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act, citing President Trump’s war with Iran, which continues to rage following the collapse of the US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding.
The NDAA would provide the Pentagon with over $1.1 trillion in funding as part of the White House’s plan for a $1.5 trillion military budget for 2027, a nearly 50% increase from this year.
A procedural vote of 50-46 fell well short of the 60 votes that it needed to advance the NDAA. Every Democrat, except two who weren’t present for the vote — Senators Jon Fetterman (PA) and Alex Padilla (CA) — voted against advancing the sprawling military spending bill.
“The NDAA cannot become a permission slip for that recklessness that we see occurring in Iran,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, according to POLITICO. “Donald Trump does not get to drag the American people deeper into a war he cannot explain and does not know how to end, and then demand Congress look the other way.”
Schumer also noted in a post on X that “bipartisan majorities in Congress passed legislation to end this war that Trump is ignoring,” referring to the War Powers Resolution that both the House and the Senate passed last month, directing President Trump to end the war with Iran.
The vote in June marked the first time Congress ever passed a concurrent War Powers Resolution, which doesn’t require the president’s signature and is the specific type of legislation designated by the 1973 War Powers Act to compel the Executive Branch to end a war launched without congressional authorization in violation of the Constitution.
Section 5(c) of the 1973 War Powers Act states that “at any time that United States Armed Forces are engaged in hostilities outside the territory of the United States, its possessions and territories without a declaration of war or specific statutory authorization, such forces shall be removed by the President if the Congress so directs by concurrent resolution.”
The Trump administration has deemed the War Powers Act “unconstitutional” but has still tried to work within its confines. The law, which doesn’t supersede the Constitution, includes a 60-day deadline with a potential 30-day extension for the president to end any unauthorized military action or obtain authorization from Congress, a deadline that has been falsely reinterpreted to allow the president 60 days to wage war without congressional authorization.
On July 10, Trump formally notified Congress that the war with Iran had resumed after the US began new strikes on the country, which the administration claims means that the 60-day clock has restarted, but the war never actually ended since the US continued a blockade on Iran for most of the time since the “ceasefire” was declared and launched multiple rounds of strikes following the signign of the US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding, which has since collapsed.
