On October 9, 2025, the United States Senate passed an amendment to repeal the 1991 and 2002 Authorizations for Use of Military Force (AUMFs) related to Iraq. The measure, SA 3337, was adopted as part of the Fiscal Year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). It was sponsored by Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Todd Young (R-IN) and described as a bipartisan initiative which was passed by a vote of 77-20.

The 2002 AUMF authorized the use of military force against Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq, while the 1991 AUMF authorized military force in the Gulf War. Over the years, the AUMFs were occasionally cited by both Republican and Democratic administrations as the domestic legal basis for military operations in Iraq and the region. The Biden Administration, however, stated that current U.S. military operations in Iraq do not rely on either authorization.

The House of Representatives had also previously voted to repeal these authorizations in 2021, but the effort did not become law because the House and Senate acted in different sessions of the Congress. The Senate’s latest vote marks the most significant bipartisan effort towards formally repealing the Iraq-related AUMFs. If enacted, the repeal would reassert Congress’s Article I powers over the decisions to use military force and prevent future presidents from invoking the two AUMFs as a domestic legal basis for new military operations. Once signed into law, any future U.S. military action in Iraq would require new, specific congressional authorization.