The Senate voted largely along party lines on Wednesday night to reject a procedural motion on an effort aiming to bring the U.S. operations in Iran to an immediate halt for the second time this month.

The war powers resolution, led by Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), is part of an effort by a group of Senate Democrats to disrupt and slow down business on the Senate floor in protest of the war in Iran, which was launched without congressional authorization, and to seek public testimony by Cabinet officials about the conflict. 

In the minority, Democrats have limited ability to effect change or disrupt the war effort, but war powers resolutions are subject to special Senate procedures allowing them to be called up at a time of their sponsors’ choosing, after a short waiting period.

The Senate voted the resolution down 53-47, with Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) breaking with Democrats to support the war effort and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) breaking with Republicans to oppose it, as they both did the previous time.

The Democrats involved are planning to continue such efforts and already have five additional war powers resolutions introduced that could be called up, though Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) told Jewish Insider on Tuesday he was only expecting one vote this week.

“We made a determination back at the very end of February when this war started, that we were not going to let [President Donald Trump] do this without a fight … to not allow business as usual, to not allow them to spend billions of dollars of our treasure and the blood of our American citizens without so much as an adequate debate or hearing oversight or accountability whatsoever,” Booker said at an event with the advocacy group VoteVets prior to the vote.

Booker also argued on the Senate floor that the situation in the Middle East has only worsened since the chamber voted on the previous war powers resolution.

Though Republicans, with the exception of Paul, are continuing to stick together in support of the operation, it’s unclear whether that will last as the war continues or if the U.S. deploys ground troops in Iran.

A handful of Republicans from the populist wing of the GOP have suggested that the U.S. operation in Iran has largely met its goals and can wrap up promptly.

“We are going to keep forcing them again and again and again — as much as they hate it — to have to vote on this, until we finally get in public the answers that Americans deserve,” Kaine said at an event prior to the vote.

Kaine also said that the Democratic lawmakers aim to leverage the upcoming National Defense Authorization Act appropriations process, potential GOP reconciliation bill and anticipated supplemental funding request to force votes on the war and compel testimony by administration officials.

“We are committed to using every last one to demonstrate the foolishness of this war, the illegality the war, with the thought that the more we do it, the more the American public agrees with us, the more they’re gonna talk to their members of Congress and senators, and we can start pulling some more votes away,” he said.

Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that passing the resolution would endanger American servicemembers and the country.

“What they’re asking us to do is to put our tail between our legs and leave the battlefield and surrender the battlefield to the Iranians. We’re not going to do that,” Risch said on the Senate floor. “Democrats are attempting to stop the administration from keeping Americans safe through these defensive actions against Iran. … The resolution would put them further in danger if it passed.”