How each senator voted on the repeal of the Iraq War authorization

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday took a historic step, voting to repeal the 2002 resolution that provided George W. Bush and later presidents the authority to take military action in Iraq.

The repeal faces an uncertain fate in the Republican-controlled House, but President Biden has said he would sign it if it passes in both chambers.

The final vote in the Senate was 66-30, similar to the margin by which the chamber initially authorized the Iraq War. The support was bipartisan, with all Democrats present and 18 Republicans voting in favor of repeal. The measure repealed not just the 2002 authorization for the use of military force (AUMF), but also an earlier one from the first Gulf War in 1991.

Those who voted against the repeal cautioned that it would be viewed as a retreat from the Middle East that could embolden Iran, and they suggested it might prevent the president from responding to hostile acts by Iran in the region. Biden has said he does not need the authorization to conduct such operations.

Notably, the vote forced a number of lawmakers to account for a 2002 vote that many regard as one of Congress’s biggest mistakes. That’s given the war was premised on the idea that Saddam Hussein was pursuing weapons of mass destruction. That was later revealed to be false.

Nearly three dozen members of Congress who voted for the war remain in Congress, including 15 who currently serve in the Senate. (Biden also voted in favor.) About half of them voted Wednesday to repeal the AUMF they voted for more than 20 years ago, while about half voted to keep it in place.

In the House, Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has said the measure will work its way through the normal committee process but also signaled that he personally supported the repeal, as long as a separate authorization for the post-9/11 war on terror remained. “I’m into it,” McCarthy said last week. “I don’t have a problem repealing that.”

Votes in 2002 are noted for members who voted in either chamber of Congress on the resolution to authorize military action in Iraq.