By Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON, May 13 (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked the latest Democratic-led effort to end the Iran war until it is authorized by Congress, but the measure edged closer to passage as a third Republican voted to advance the bill.
The Senate voted 50-49 not to advance the war powers resolution, nearly along party lines. Three Republicans joined every Democrat but one in backing the measure sponsored by Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon.
It was the seventh time this year that President Donald Trump's fellow Republicans in the Senate had blocked similar resolutions.
Republicans Rand Paul of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted in favor of moving ahead, while Democrat John Fetterman of Pennsylvania voted with Republicans to block it.
The vote was the first in the Senate since the conflict hit a 60-day deadline on May 1 for Trump to come to Congress about the war. Trump declared then that a ceasefire had "terminated" hostilities against Iran.
Under a 1973 U.S. war powers law passed in response to the Vietnam War, a U.S. president can wage military action for only 60 days before ending it, asking Congress for authorization or seeking a 30-day extension due to "unavoidable military necessity regarding the safety of United States Armed Forces" while withdrawing forces.
Democrats disputed Trump's assertion that the deadline did not apply because of a ceasefire, saying the conflict is ongoing.
"There's not a cessation of war hostilities," Merkley told reporters before the vote, citing the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports and strikes on Iranian ships and Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and attacks on U.S. ships and tankers.
"Both sides are still engaged in hostilities, and so I don't accept that the 60-day clock is suspended," he said.
Merkley and other Senate Democrats said they planned to bring up another war powers resolution next week, and every week until the war ends or Trump comes to lawmakers for authorization.
Democrats in the House have also introduced war powers resolutions, also blocked by Republicans.
Democrats have called on Trump to come to Congress for authorization to use military force, noting that the U.S. Constitution says that Congress, not the president, can declare war. They have warned that Trump may have pulled the country into a long conflict without setting out a clear strategy.
Republicans - and the White House - say Trump's actions are legal and within his rights as commander-in-chief to protect the U.S. by ordering limited military operations.
Some congressional Republicans have accused Democrats of filing the war powers resolutions only because of their partisan opposition to Trump.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle in WashingtonEditing by Bill Berkrot)
