Lisa Murkowski is the Republican US Senator for Alaska, in office since 2002. She is best known for winning re-election in 2010 as a write-in candidate after losing the Republican primary, making her the most independently positioned centrist in the Senate.Source: US Senate records

Why is Lisa Murkowski blocking the Iran war funding bill?

Murkowski announced she will not vote for the $200 billion war supplemental without a White House strategy outline. She is one of several Republicans whose opposition Left GOP leaders without enough votes in their own caucus.Source: event

Did Murkowski vote against the SAVE Act?

Yes. Murkowski voted against the SAVE Act twice — in its previous session and again on 14 April 2026 when the Senate voted 51-48 to proceed with debate.Source: editorial

Background

Lisa Murkowski has represented Alaska in the US Senate since 2002, initially appointed by her father, Governor Frank Murkowski. She secured her seat independently in 2010 by winning as a write-in candidate after losing the Republican primary, a feat achieved only once before in Senate history. That survival, outside party machinery, defines her political identity as the Senate's most durable centrist Republican.

Murkowski's sustained pattern of independence has made her the pivotal vote on both the Iran war and domestic election-law debates. She sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee, giving her procedural weight beyond her single vote. She has voted against the SAVE Act twice and withheld support for the war supplemental without a White House strategy outline.

Murkowski's four-sponsor Iran AUMF (Collins, Tillis, Curtis, Todd Young) was the Senate's only active instrument for formally authorising the war. She deliberately withheld filing as leverage, setting a 9 May conditional Deadline requiring a White House 'credible plan' with defined objectives, success metrics, exit criteria, and congressional reporting . The Deadline expired unfulfilled; she returned with the Senate on 11 May but kept the bill off the docket .

On 12 May, Murkowski asked Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth before the Senate Appropriations Committee whether an AUMF would be 'helpful'. His reply — Trump has 'all the authorities he needs under Article 2' and 'we don't need' an AUMF — rendered her instrument procedurally moot. The AUMF thread, which had run for seven weeks and attracted bipartisan support, ended not with a vote but with a doctrine statement from the Pentagon .

On 13 May, Murkowski crossed the floor for the first time on the war itself, voting yes on the seventh Democratic War Powers Act resolution alongside Collins and Rand Paul. The vote fell 49-50, one short — citing the absence of an administration briefing since Hegseth's testimony and the timeline having passed 60 days without authorisation. The following day the House tied 212-212 on a parallel resolution, with no presidential response to either vote, marking 77 days since Operation EPIC FURY began with the AUMF she promised still unfiled. With the AUMF PATH closed by Hegseth's testimony, her remaining instrument is a funding rider on the Appropriations Committee's war supplemental.