First-time rebuke: US House votes to curb Trump powers vs Iran
The House for the first time on Wednesday approved a war powers resolution that would halt the US military action against Iran, defying President Donald Trump as a handful of Republicans joined with Democrats to end the three-month-long conflict that has reordered politics at home and abroad.
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.
“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, suffering at the supermarkets.”
Uncertain next steps
The roll call on Wednesday was 215-208, but next steps are uncertain. Trump would likely reject any measure from Congress to limit his commander in chief authority.
Still, the tally, with four Republicans joining Democrats, was a rebuke of the president’s war strategy, and cheers erupted in the House chamber.
It’s the fourth time the House has tried to curb the US war against Iran. The Senate advanced its own war powers resolution last month when a handful of GOP senators broke ranks with the Republican president in a rare show of political pushback from his party.
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.
Since the United States joined Israel in launching the Feb. 28 strikes on Iran, Americans have seen gas prices spike at the pumps, adding to inflationary pressure on consumer spending.
While a ceasefire in the conflict was declared in April, it remains uneasy and uncertain. Talks for a more durable end to the fighting have dragged, increasingly complicated by Israel’s broadening war with Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. Meanwhile, military strikes between the United States and Iran continue to flare.
Symbolic gesture
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.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned on 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 Senate joins the House to approve the resolution, it could set the stage for a fresh legal test of war powers.
