The US House voted to halt President Donald Trump’s war in Iran, absent congressional approval, the latest repudiation by lawmakers of the president’s handling of the conflict.
Four Republicans voted with Democrats in support of the measure, which was brought by Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal. The vote was 214 to 208. Republican Reps. Thomas Massie, Brian Fitzpatrick, Tom Barrett and Warren Davidson crossed party lines to support the resolution.
The House resolution amounts to a significant rebuke. But even if it passed the Senate, it would not compel the administration to end the war. Concurrent resolutions, which are not presented to the president for signature or veto, lack the force of law.
The Senate voted later Thursday on its own effort to advance a measure to rein in Trump’s war powers in Iran – but the vote failed. The vote was 47 to 49. Republican Sen. Susan Collins voted with Democrats in an effort to limit the president’s war powers, while Democratic Sen. John Fetterman voted with the rest of the Republican conference to reject the measure.
The votes came amid an escalation of the renewed conflict after a recent ceasefire came to an end. This was the second time the House has voted to check the president’s ability to continue waging war, but the first after the memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran collapsed.
Democrats have repeatedly forced votes to limit Trump’s war powers in both the House and the Senate, but the campaign has gradually picked up more GOP support in a sign of growing discontent within the party over the ongoing conflict. The bodies of four American service members killed during the Iran war returned to the United States in flag-draped cases on Wednesday.
Some Democrats who champion the war powers efforts have argued that the concurrent resolutions are still legally binding, and argue the courts have not ruled on whether they lack legal effect when dealing with war powers measures.
House Democrats emphasized on Thursday that they are making a politically popular choice in voting repeatedly to rein in President Donald Trump’s authorities in Iran as the war drags on ahead of the midterm elections.
“I think that Americans of all backgrounds are sick of seeing the United States enter wars without justification, spending trillions of dollars in our engagements abroad.”
The passage of the war powers measure before the House left for August recess sends a message of both the depravity and wrongheadedness of going into Iran, offending the global economy, and also a complete lack of focus on the needs of working class Americans.
“I believe Republicans who did not show up to vote did not want to take a ‘no’ vote, and then have to go home to their constituents and explain to them why they voted ‘no’ on ending this illegal war instead of focusing on what Americans really want to focus on.”
The president has sharply criticized Republicans for voting to advance previous war powers resolutions, chastising them in closed-door meetings and posting on Truth Social that they are “losers” who “made my job more difficult.”
In June, during the ceasefire, the Senate adopted a resolution aimed at removing military forces from Iran, though the chamber walked back the rebuke a day later when they failed to advance a similar war powers measure.