Senate Democrats are threatening to shut down all business on the Senate floor, and they are demanding top officials face grilling over Iran war

A determined group of Senate Democrats is threatening to bring all business on the Senate floor to a grinding halt. They’re demanding that Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and other senior administration officials appear under oath before key committees to answer pressing questions about the ongoing military conflict with Iran.

These senators are collectively agreeing to use every procedural tool they have to disrupt the normal functioning of the Senate. As Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) explained, “We should be having hearings on the biggest military engagement since the war in Afghanistan.” He stressed that individual senators have “a tremendous amount of power to disrupt” and that they won’t let the Senate continue “business as usual” while ignoring urgent issues.

The Democrats want to grill Rubio and Hegseth in front of both the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee. Their specific concerns include the expected duration and cost of the conflict, the lack of a clear endgame, and the absence of clear rules of engagement, especially with civilian casualties on the rise.

This is a tough situation, especially after an estimated 170 people were killed in a missile strike on a girls’ school in southern Iran

Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Senator Jack Reed (D-R.I.), the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, have already asked their Republican counterparts to schedule these crucial hearings.

Senator Booker emphasized that they are “demanding there be hearings, debate, questions answered, that the Senate do its job.” He finds it unacceptable that there haven’t been sufficient public hearings with witnesses under oath on these critical issues.

The group of Democratic lawmakers behind this push is quite formidable, including potential presidential candidates like Senator Booker and Senator Chris Murphy (Conn.). Also involved are Senator Tim Kaine (Va.), who’s an expert on the 1973 War Powers Act; Senator Tammy Duckworth (Ill.), an Iraq War veteran and Purple Heart recipient; and Senators Adam Schiff (Calif.) and Tammy Baldwin (Wis.).

These Democrats have already filed five different resolutions that aim to direct the administration to remove U.S. troops from military hostilities against Iran. Their plan is to force Republicans to repeatedly debate and vote on the conflict on the Senate floor.

Senator Murphy highlighted that senators have a right, granted by statute under the 1973 War Powers Act, to force a vote and debate every single day in the Senate. This act provides a privileged pathway for resolutions that order a halt to military action not authorized by Congress. It even requires the Foreign Relations Committee to report such a resolution within 10 days or face a Senate vote to discharge it to the floor.

Senator Kaine recently used this exact mechanism to force a vote on halting military action against Iran, though his resolution failed last week. The vote largely fell along party lines, with Senator Rand Paul (Ky.) being the only Republican to support it and Senator John Fetterman (Pa.) being the only Democrat to vote against it.