For the first time in three months, a handful of Republicans joined with Democrats in the US House on Wednesday to approve a war powers resolution that would halt Washington’s military action against Iran, defying President Donald Trump.
The move aims to end the three-month-long conflict that has reordered politics at home and abroad.
House lawmakers voted 215-208 on the resolution, but next steps are uncertain, as Trump is expected to likely reject any measure from Congress to limit his commander-in-chief authority.
Yet, the tally, with four Republicans joining Democrats, was a rebuke of the president’s war strategy, and cheers erupted in the House chamber
“Enough is enough,” said Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who led the effort.
“It is time for the president to do the right thing,” he said. “The people are tired of suffering because of his war of choice — suffering at the gas pump and suffering at the supermarkets.”
Opposition to war grows
It’s the fourth time the House has tried to curb the US war against Iran. House Speaker Mike Johnson had tried to prevent an outcome that would show the mounting opposition to the war, abruptly shutting down floor action two weeks ago when the resolution was on the verge of approval. But displeasure has only grown as the conflict drags on and as Trump struggles to negotiate a plan for peace.
The Senate advanced its own war powers resolution when a handful of GOP senators broke ranks with the Republican president in a rare show of political pushback from his party.
But each time Democrats have pushed forward the war powers resolution, the vote tallies have inched higher as political unease with the US war swells.
Trump had campaigned for the White House on a promise to end US entanglements abroad and focus more on domestic issues, but the war has shifted attention back to the Middle East.
On Wednesday, Johnson insisted Trump is “laser focused” on the domestic front, particularly ahead of the midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.
The speaker said he spent three hours at the White House with the president this week, and Trump is calling on allies to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz and resume the flow of commerce.
Since the US joined Israel in launching the 28 February strikes on Iran, Americans have seen gas prices spike at the pumps, adding to inflationary pressure on consumer spending.
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Iran has been able to interrupt shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital channel for a large segment of the world’s oil, natural gas and related products such as fertilizer.
Congress exerts war powers authority
The War Powers Resolution from the House would not immediately stop the war, but it would provide a symbolic — if not legal — step against further military action.
The resolution next goes to the Senate, where four Republican senators last month joined Democrats in advancing a similar measure to curtail the US campaign against Iran. The Senate has yet to take a final vote to approve or reject its own war powers resolution.
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Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Wednesday at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing that the Iranians would think that the administration’s “hands are going to be tied” if Congress approved a war powers resolution. He said they would think, “We won’t be able to do anything to them, so why make a deal?”
While Congress has the authority under the Constitution to declare war, the president also has power as the commander in chief to engage in military action, creating a legal dispute over which branch of government has ultimate say in matters of war and peace. If the Senate joins the House to approve the resolution, it could set the stage for a fresh legal test of war powers.
The War Powers Act gives the White House sixty days to ask Congress for permission to employ military force. However, the Trump administration has stated that hostilities have stopped because a ceasefire has been declared in the ongoing Iran war.
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