Wyoming congressional delegation backs Iran War, rejects resolutions to halt conflict
JACKSON — Wyoming’s congressional delegation has unanimously backed President Donald Trump’s unilateral decision to begin bombing Iran.
In the U.S. House of Representatives, Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., brought a war powers resolution meant to halt the conflict. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., brought a similar resolution in the Senate. The Senate rejected the resolution Wednesday and the House did the same Thursday.
Wyoming’s three Republican delegates, Sens. John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis and Rep. Harriet Hageman, all voted against the resolutions.
“Every modern president has exercised this authority,” Barrasso said from the floor of the Senate. “Democrats would rather obstruct President Trump than obliterate Iran’s national nuclear program.”
The Senate voted 47-53 to reject the resolution. The House did the same on a 212-219 vote. Republicans control both chambers.
Lawmakers generally voted along party lines, but Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., Reps. Jared Golden, D-Maine, Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, Greg Landsman, D-Ohio, and Juan Vargas, D-Calif., split with their party and voted against the resolutions, meaning they support continuing the conflict.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Massie and Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, bucked their party and voted for the resolution, meaning they oppose continued conflict.
The U.S. Constitution delegates war powers between Congress and the presidency, giving Congress the ability to declare war and allocate military spending, and naming the president commander in chief.
In 1973, Congress passed a war powers resolution in response to the United States’ extended wars in Korea and Vietnam in the 1950s and ’60s, which happened without congressional war declarations. The resolution checks presidential authority by requiring presidents to notify Congress of military action within 48 hours and limiting the duration of conflict to 60 days.
Congress has approved more recent conflicts, like the 2002 invasion of Iraq, under “authorizations of military force.” In contrast to an AUMF, which OKs military action, the two resolutions rejected last week were intended to claw back troops from the Middle East.
Trump’s administration did give a small group of top lawmakers notice of the president’s decision to attack Iran alongside Israel, but did not receive congressional approval to do so. Democrats have argued Trump overstepped his authority. Republicans have said the opposite and argued passing the resolution could hamper American military operations.
Congressional Republicans have picked their words carefully, with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., saying the U.S. military is conducting a “limited operation.”
Iran has long been at war with the U.S. and Trump is beginning to end the conflict, Lummis said in a Thursday statement to the Jackson Hole Daily.
“President Trump has been clear from the start: the goal is to eliminate Iran’s ability to build a nuclear weapon and take out the ballistic missile network that shields that program,” Lummis said. “I voted this week to support President Trump in this critical effort to ensure that Iran does not get a nuclear weapon.”
Hageman echoed Lummis’ sentiment, saying Trump is tackling decades of instability in the Middle East and putting an end to the killing of American troops.
“Passing the War Powers Resolution is the wrong message to send at this time when our President and troops require complete support to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran,” Hageman said in a statement.
Hageman is running for Lummis’ soon-to-be vacant seat in the U.S. Senate.
This story was published on March 9, 2026.