WASHINGTON — Sen. Lisa Murkowski voted with Democrats Wednesday to advance a resolution to remove U.S. forces from Iran, after rejecting six similar measures. But she said her stance is not absolute, and she said she might be willing to approve nearly $30 billion to pay for the war.
First, though, she’s asking for more facts about what the war has cost, beyond the round numbers the Pentagon has given lawmakers.
“A couple weeks ago the number was $25 billion. On Tuesday, they moved that up to $29 billion,” she said in a Senate hallway Thursday. “But what wasn't clear was what that 29 billion actually covered.”
Murkowski occupies rare ground, as a Republican challenging Trump’s war powers, while remaining open to funding the same conflict she's trying to end. It reflects her frustration that the Trump administration is keeping Congress in the dark as it pursues a war that has already cost nearly $30 billion.
The public would likely be surprised at how little information Trump administration officials have shared with Congress, she said. They won’t answer senators’ questions about the plan to open the Strait of Hormuz, she said, or reveal how America’s munition stockpiles are holding up.
“I recognize that some of this needs to be made in a classified brief, but there has been no offer to make this information available to members in a classified briefing,” she said.
She’s tried for weeks to muster support for an Authorization of Use of Military Force – an A.U.M.F. It would have authorized Trump’s war, which Democrats don’t like, and put some restraints on it, which most Republicans oppose. She’s setting that strategy aside for now. But she said that she plans to keep voting for resolutions to end the hostilities.
“Until such time as the president has basically complied under the War Powers Act, I think it is time for the administration to begin to withdraw our forces,” she said.
The War Powers Act says a president has to get congressional authority to continue a war after 60 days. Instead of doing that, Murkowski said, Trump claimed that the conflict no longer exists.
“The president has said on May 1 — 60, days after — 'hostilities have ended. We've ceased the hostilities. And so therefore there's no reason for me to come back to the Congress, either requesting an authorization or really for anything,’” she said. “I think that that twists the intent and the meaning and the understanding of the War Powers Act.”
Other Republicans are backing Trump’s view, that the hostilities officially ended with last month’s ceasefire. Sen. Dan Sullivan voted against advancing the Democratic measure, as did one Democrat– Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania. If one more senator flips to yes, the resolution calling for the withdrawal of U.S. forces would go before the full Senate for debate.
Meanwhile, Congress still holds the power of the purse over the war. Murkowski said she’s waiting to see the administration’s request for a supplemental war spending bill.
“What we're talking about with this supplemental is what has been spent. And it's eye-popping,” she said. “Sixty-plus days, close to maybe $30 billion. That's eye-popping.”
Murkowski, who sits on the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees defense spending, said it's Congress’s responsibility to pay war expenses already incurred. Still, she said she wants to see a detailed request, to make sure the administration isn’t padding it with money for future fighting, leading the country into another “forever war.”
