Washington, D.C. – Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley—a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee—released the following statement after Senate Republicans voted to block his War Powers Resolution to end President Trump’s illegal war against Iran:
“This war of choice has been a total failure. The Strait of Hormuz—which was open before the war—remains closed, choking off vital supplies and raising costs for working families. Iran’s enriched uranium remains hidden. U.S. aggression has only strengthened the hardliners inside Iran, and our influence is declining across the region.
“As James Madison warned us: ‘the Executive is the branch of power most interested in war, and most prone to it. [The Constitution] has accordingly with studied care vested the question of war in the Legislature.’ The Senate must uphold its Constitutional duty.