A bipartisan group of senators introduced a War Powers resolution Thursday demanding the White House seek congressional authorization for any further escalation of U.S. military operations in the Iran conflict, framing the measure as a direct rebuke of an administration that lawmakers said had drifted into open-ended hostilities without a vote.

The resolution, filed jointly by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., would invoke the 1973 War Powers Resolution to require the withdrawal of U.S. forces engaged in unauthorized combat with Iranian and Iran-aligned forces within 30 days, unless Congress passes a specific Authorization for Use of Military Force. The text exempts defensive actions to protect U.S. ships and personnel already deployed.

Senators rolled out the measure as the Pentagon confirmed three additional U.S. service members were killed Wednesday in a Houthi drone strike on a logistics convoy outside the Al Asad Air Base in western Iraq, bringing the running death toll among American forces since the war’s onset to roughly 320. Twenty-two more troops were wounded in the same attack, defense officials said.

“Congress has not voted. Not once. Not on the strikes, not on the deployments, not on the casualties,” Kaine said at a Capitol news conference flanked by his cosponsors. “We are sliding, week by week, into a war whose end the executive branch cannot describe and whose authorization it has never sought. That is unconstitutional, and it is unsustainable.”

Lee, long a critic of executive war powers across administrations, said the resolution was not about second-guessing tactical decisions in theater but about restoring a “constitutional floor.” He pointedly noted that the late-March deployment of an additional 4,500 ground troops to forward positions in Iraq and Saudi Arabia had not been accompanied by a notification to congressional leadership beyond a closed-door briefing.

The White House pushed back forcefully. In a statement, press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the resolution “performative and dangerous,” arguing that ongoing U.S. action falls within the president’s Article II authority to defend American forces and respond to attacks on U.S. assets. She said the administration would continue to consult with Congress but did not commit to seeking an authorization vote.

President Donald Trump, asked about the measure during a brief exchange with reporters on the South Lawn, dismissed the cosponsors as “the same old surrender caucus” and said the U.S. position in the region had “never been stronger.” He did not address the new casualty figures directly.

The resolution arrived a day after the OPEC+ alliance announced an emergency 1.5 million barrel-per-day production hike at its Vienna session, a move that has already begun to ease the oil shock that had pushed Brent crude above $125 last week. Several senators privately said the easing of energy-price pressure had created political space to challenge the administration on the war without being accused of triggering further market panic.

Aides to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said leadership was reviewing the resolution but signaled little appetite for a floor vote, noting the chamber’s calendar is already crowded with the AI moratorium bill scheduled for a procedural vote next week. Under the War Powers Resolution, however, a privileged motion can force consideration within a fixed window, a procedural lever Kaine indicated he was prepared to use.

The measure has drawn early support from at least six Republicans beyond Lee, according to a tally provided by Murphy’s office, and from most of the Democratic caucus. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., were among the Republicans named. Several moderate Democrats, including Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., remained uncommitted.

Outside the Capitol, the political mood has shifted with the casualty figures. A CBS News–YouGov survey released Thursday morning found 54 percent of Americans now believe Congress should vote to authorize or end U.S. involvement in the conflict, up from 41 percent two weeks earlier. Forty-eight percent disapproved of the administration’s handling of the war, against 44 percent who approved, the first time disapproval had edged ahead in that survey.

“You can feel it in town halls,” said Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., a member of the House Armed Services Committee, who is drafting a companion measure for the lower chamber. “People want to know what we’re doing, what the goals are, who decided. The honest answer right now is that nobody voted on any of it.”

Defense analysts said the resolution, even if it fails, would force the administration to articulate war aims in public for the first time. “The political utility of these measures is not always in passage,” said Mara Rudman, a former senior National Security Council official now at the Center for American Progress. “It’s in forcing definitions. What does winning look like? What is the exit? Right now those are open questions, and Congress has every right to demand answers.”

Behind the scenes, House leadership has been cooler to the idea of a parallel vote. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has avoided staking out a position on War Powers procedure since the conflict began, and aides said no companion measure had been formally requested by the speaker’s office. Jacobs said she would file her version regardless and seek a discharge petition if necessary.

The Senate is expected to receive a classified briefing on the conflict’s trajectory Tuesday from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Kaine said he intended to use that session to press for a clearer accounting of deployment levels and operational objectives before forcing his resolution to the floor.

Senate aides said a vote on the war powers measure, if it materializes, would likely come in the week of April 13, after the chamber clears the AI moratorium bill and ahead of the spring recess.