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.”

Both of Missouri’s Republican senators, Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt, argued that the administration seems to have largely achieved its key objectives for the war in Iran — a posture that distinguishes him from most GOP colleagues and highlights subtle but emerging divisions among Republicans on the proper scope and duration of the war.

Pointing to comments by President Donald Trump saying that the war was substantially complete and that the U.S. had achieved its objectives, Hawley said on Fox News earlier this week, “I agree with what the president said last night. You look at all the success that we’ve had in the last 10 days. I mean, this thing is a victory. I think we should be hailing our military. We ought to be saying we’ve achieved our objectives here. … If this isn’t success, I don’t know what would be. … Now it’s time to declare victory.”

He also posited that Iran has nothing remaining with which to reconstitute its nuclear program — though the regime maintains a stockpile of enriched nuclear material which many experts argue cannot be fully secured without some form of on-the-ground presence.

Continuing a trend of making contradictory comments on the war’s timeline, Trump had said the same day that the U.S. could and would go much further in Iran, and that the U.S.’ aims could expand significantly.

Asked by Jewish Insider on Thursday about the metrics by which he was judging the success of the war, Hawley — who is one of the more prominent senators from the populist wing of the GOP — said he was referring to Trump’s own comments on the subject.

“I assume our overriding national security objective when it comes to Iran is to prevent them from getting nukes. And between our bombing last June and in the last … 12 days, I don’t know how they’re going to reconstitute their nuclear program anytime in, maybe, our lifetimes,” Hawley said.

“Our military has done an amazing job. I think it’s been an overwhelming display of force,” Hawley continued. “I know my Democrat colleagues, a bunch of them are saying, ‘This has accomplished nothing, nothing’s happened.’ It seems to me a lot has happened. And I think we should say that’s a good thing.”

Pressed on whether the war can be ended while Iran continues to fire missiles and drones at countries throughout the Middle East and is dropping mines in the Strait of Hormuz, Hawley said he would defer to Trump’s judgement on when to end the war.

“My point is just that I think the military has achieved a tremendous amount. It has ended [Iran’s] nuclear program for all intents and purposes. It has destroyed their navy. It has eliminated most of their ballistic missiles — those are good things,” he continued. “I’d be glad to take that [win].”

“Seems pretty good to me,” Hawley added.

Schmitt, who is also aligned with the populist wing of the party, likewise emphasized the progress the U.S. has made and pushed for a quick conclusion to the war.

“I know they’re way ahead of schedule. I’d look for a swift end to it,” Schmitt told JI. “I’m not interested in forever war in the Middle East, I don’t think the president is either. And I think that, again, they’ve laid out clear objectives and [are] making a lot of progress.”

Other Republicans are taking a distinctly different approach. Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) told reporters on Thursday that “victory isn’t determined by declaration, it’s determined by the outcome.” He argued that the U.S. can’t and shouldn’t end the war prematurely.

“If you pull 90% of the weeds of our garden and you leave 10%, you’re going to have a weedy garden,” Cramer continued. “The last 10% are the hardest, in many cases.”

The North Dakota senator, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, expressed surprise that the U.S. had not been better prepared to secure the Strait of Hormuz, calling it a potential “miscalculation” and saying that the attacks on ships in the critical waterway “could have been avoided.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), one of the most vocal supporters of the Iran war on Capitol Hill, said that he thinks there are “weeks more of this coming.”

“I don’t see this conflict ending today. I think the mission is to make sure they cannot regenerate, that they’re going to be beyond capable of building missiles to hit us, and they’ll never go back to the nuclear business,” Graham continued.

Also on Thursday, in a rare Senate floor speech, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), emphasized that the war against Iran cannot be decoupled from the global axis, including Russia and China, with which Iran is aligned. 

Russia, McConnell emphasized, has reportedly been providing Iran with targeting intelligence. He criticized Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, who said earlier this week that he takes Russia at its word that it has not been doing that. 

“I’ve warned successive presidents to take the Russian-Iranian axis, actually, more seriously,” McConnell said. He emphasized the supportive role that Ukraine has taken in helping to protect the U.S.’ allies in the Gulf, and criticized administration officials for not moving more quickly in pre-war discussions to acquire Ukrainian anti-drone technology.

He also urged lawmakers who oppose the war to nonetheless support an expected request for supplemental military funding as “an overdue opportunity to invest in urgent and strategic defense priorities.”