Democratic members of the US Senate have blocked a motion to open debate on the annual defense-policy bill, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), in opposition to the Iran war being waged by President Donald Trump. The Democrats also opposed a proposal to further increase coordination between the US and Israeli militaries.
The vote on the motion to begin debate was held in the Senate on Tuesday, where it failed 50-46 — a rare setback for one of the few bills that had been expected to pass Congress.
The annual defense-policy bill was to approve a large part of Trump’s proposed $1.15 trillion military budget. But in the 100-member Senate, the motion needed at least 60 votes to open debate.
The Democrats argued that Congress should not advance the bill while Trump is intensifying the war against Iran. Many party members opposed further deepening military and intelligence cooperation between the US and Israel, and objected to the record budget proposed for the Pentagon.
Before the vote, Democratic leader Chuck Schumer urged party members to oppose the bill, saying it would give the Trump administration a “blank cheque” to keep waging military operations against Iran without congressional oversight.
Outside Congress, a coalition of 14 civil-liberties, foreign-policy and anti-war organisations also opposed the bill. Calling Trump’s Iran war unauthorised, they said the annual defense-policy bill should not move forward until there was a guarantee that funding for the war would be cut off.
Senators Chris Van Hollen, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Ed Markey, Jeff Merkley and Peter Welch, among others, wrote a letter to colleagues last week urging them not to advance the NDAA without allowing debate.
“As Democratic members of the Senate, we should not cast any vote that encourages Trump to deepen the United States’ relationship with Netanyahu’s extremist government,” they wrote.
In a video posted on X before the vote, Senator Chris Van Hollen said the bill would clear the way for an “unusually large” Pentagon budget while placing no check on Trump’s illegal war against Iran.
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