Lisa Murkowski
Republican Senator, Alaska; her Iran AUMF was rendered moot when Hegseth claimed Article 2 covers the war, 12 May 2026.
Lisa Murkowski withheld her Iran war-authorisation bill for seven weeks as leverage, then saw it collapse on 12 May 2026 when Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told Congress Trump already had 'all the authorities he needs under Article 2'.
Last refreshed: 19 August 2026 · Appears in 2 active topics
Her AUMF was moot before it was filed. What leverage does Murkowski have left?
Timeline for Lisa Murkowski
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Iran Conflict 2026Background
Lisa Murkowski has represented Alaska in the US Senate since 2002, initially appointed to the seat by her father, Governor Frank Murkowski. She won it independently in 2010 as a write-in candidate after losing the Republican primary, a feat achieved only once before in Senate history.
She sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee, giving her procedural weight on spending bills beyond her single vote. Through 2026 she repeatedly crossed party lines against the SAVE Act's voter-ID provisions, including a 51-48 procedural vote in April and a reconciliation attempt that failed 48-50 .
That pattern of independence, rather than any single vote, is what makes her a repeated pivot point in narrow Senate margins, on both war powers and domestic election law.
Murkowski's AUMF collapses under testimony
Murkowski set 11 May as her Deadline for the White House to produce a written plan with defined objectives, success metrics, exit criteria and reporting requirements before she would file her Iran war-authorisation bill (AUMF) . The Deadline passed unmet, and she kept the bill off the floor when the Senate returned that day.
On 12 May, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told the Senate Appropriations Committee that Trump already had 'all the authorities he needs under Article 2' and did not need an AUMF, ending the rationale for her bill without a vote ever being taken on it . She never filed it.
Murkowski crosses on war powers
Murkowski criticised Trump's Iran rhetoric through early April without breaking ranks on the Senate's war-powers votes . On 13 May she crossed for the first time, voting yes on the seventh Democratic War Powers Act resolution alongside Susan Collins and Rand Paul; the measure fell 49-50, one vote short .
The crossing came a day after Hegseth's Article 2 testimony had removed her AUMF's rationale. The House tied 212-212 on a parallel measure the following day, leaving both chambers without a binding result against the war.
Murkowski demands strategy before war funding
Murkowski refused to vote for the Pentagon's $200 billion war supplemental without a White House strategy outline, a position she held as the request quadrupled from its original estimate in March 2026 . At $900 million a day, the funding fight put her Appropriations Committee seat at the centre of Congress's clearest leverage over the war's cost.
Her position held into a wider Republican revolt: Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts called the dissent 'good', the first time the group had endorsed opposition to military spending, while GOP leaders privately conceded they lacked the votes to pass the request .