WATCH: Senate Blocks Fifth Attempt by Sen. Schiff, Colleagues to End Trump’s Illegal War in Iran

Senate blocks resolution led by Senator Baldwin (D-Wisc.)

Schiff: "…This much we know already, this war has come at a terrible cost."

Washington, D.C. -  Today, a majority of Senate Republicans again voted to block a resolution to end President Trump's illegal war in Iran sponsored by U.S. Senators Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) and Andy Kim (D-N.J.).

This is the fifth resolution, this one led by Baldwin, the Senators have forced a vote on since the beginning of the war.

"Every American family will already be asked to pay over a thousand dollars as their contribution to a war they did not want, which their representatives in Congress did not vote to approve. Just imagine what that means. For that price, America could have paid for universal pre-K for all of our kids. Think about that: every American child could have had pre-K for the likely cost of this war. In a very real sense, the early childhood education of our kids will suffer because this president chose to invest in bombing Iran, instead of educating our kids," said Senator Schiff on the Senate floor.

"And finally, we are paying an additional cost for this war, from the fact that the case for this war was never made to the country or to the Congress, from the fact that our Republican colleagues in the majority have refused thus far to hold a single hearing on the war. I'm told maybe there will be one at the end of next week. And the American people are not informed about the purpose, the goals, the duration, the price tag and more of this conflict because we have had no open hearings on it. And that cost is this: more wars by this president or future presidents because Congress has refused to exercise its constitutional authority over war," the Senator continued.

These war power votes follow the Senators' demands that Republican Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) ensure the relevant committees of jurisdiction in the Senate hold immediate public hearings on the administration's unconstitutional war in Iran. The Senators stated they will use these resolutions to force debate and additional votes if Republican leadership does not hold public committee hearings with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.  

Last June, the Senate voted on a similar War Powers Resolution introduced by Kaine and Schiff to prevent the use of military force against Iran unless explicitly authorized by Congress. The June resolution gained bipartisan support but did not receive enough votes to advance.

Watch his full speech HERE. Download remarks HERE.

Read the full transcript of his remarks as delivered below: 

Today the Iranians claimed to have seized two ships in the Strait of Hormuz, while firing on a third. The president has ordered the blockade of Iranian ports to continue, even as he announced a ceasefire, even as he backed off yet another apocalyptic threat. In short, we are approaching the end of the second month of Trump's Iran War, and there is no end to the conflict - or the confusion - in sight.

Sadly, there is little sense that a deal is in the offing, or what that deal would look like, and whether our security will be any better if and when the president declares some kind of Pyrrhic victory. But this much we know already, this war has come at a terrible cost.

First and foremost, there has been the tragic loss of human lives. Thirteen of our servicemembers have been killed, including Chief Warrant Officer Robert Marzan of California. Over 200 U.S. servicemembers have been injured, some seriously. Our hearts go out to all of the families and the communities from which they come. Scores of Iranian civilians have also been killed, including over a hundred at a girls' school that appears to have been mistakenly bombed by the United States. There have also been casualties in Israel and the Gulf states, the total number of which is still unknown.

Second, there is the economic cost to the American taxpayer to the tune of tens of billions of dollars maybe when this conflict is over hundreds of billions of dollars. Every American family will already be asked to pay over a thousand dollars as their contribution to a war they did not want, which their representatives in Congress did not vote to approve. Just imagine what that means. For that price, America could have paid for universal pre-K for all of our kids. Think about that: every American child could have had pre-K for the likely cost of this war. In a very real sense, the early childhood education of our kids will suffer because this president chose to invest in bombing Iran, instead of educating our kids.

Now, a hospital costs around $100 million dollars. That means there could have been 200 hospitals in 200 communities around the country for the cost of this war. One of those communities just might have been yours. Those hospitals will never be built because this president - who promised no more foreign wars, no more regime-change wars, no more stupid wars - broke his promise. Diminished health care for you and your family is a cost of the war.

Third, you are paying much higher prices for gas, electricity, groceries, and more as a result of this war. Why, because of the eminently predictable action Iran has taken to close a vital shipping lane - the Strait of Hormuz. General Caine reportedly warned President Trump that Iran was very likely to take this action; frankly it didn't require a military genius to reach that conclusion. But drunk on his own power, convinced of his own infallibility - this is a president, after all, who just said that he would have won the Vietnam war very quickly - Donald Trump could not conceive of anything other than a quick Iranian capitulation. Sadly though, this has not been the case, and there is still no end to the conflict, or the higher prices Americans are paying. An average family - your family - can expect to pay at least a thousand dollars more a year in costs like those at the pump, as a result of Trump's Iran war. And that is on top of another thousand dollars in taxes to pay for all the bombs that we are dropping on that country.

And finally, we are paying an additional cost for this war, from the fact that the case for this war was never made to the country or to the Congress, from the fact that our Republican colleagues in the majority have refused thus far to hold a single hearing on the war. I'm told maybe there will be one at the end of next week. And the American people are not informed about the purpose, the goals, the duration, the price tag and more of this conflict because we have had no open hearings on it. And that cost is this: more wars by this president or future presidents because Congress has refused to exercise its constitutional authority over war.

And that cost could be the most substantial of all, because the establishment of a precedent in which the president can initiate a war of enormous consequence, a war in which we pay a tremendous cost in life and treasure - without any input, and without any approval - that precedent may lead to additional wars, needless wars, dangerous and damaging wars.

Which brings us to this moment, and to this War Powers Resolution, and the need to use our constitutional power to bring an end to this war.

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