The Republican-led House narrowly rejected a Democratic push Thursday to block President Donald Trump from ordering further strikes on Iran, a day after the Senate turned back a similar measure seeking to rein in the president as the unpopular war approaches the two-month mark.
The measure was defeated 214-213 on a largely party-line vote, with one lawmaker voting present.
Only one Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden (Maine), voted against the resolution.
The resolution sought to direct Trump to “remove United States Armed Forces from hostilities against the Islamic Republic of Iran” except as necessary to defend against an imminent attack. It was a test of lawmakers’ support for the conflict since Trump threatened last week to destroy Iran’s “whole civilization” and then hours later agreed to a two-week ceasefire.
Rep. Gregory W. Meeks (New York), the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said during debate on the measure that Trump had “dragged the American people into a war of choice launched without congressional authorization.”
“No matter whether you agree with the war or not … the Constitution grants the Congress, not the president, the power to declare the war,” Meeks said. “Don’t take my word for it. Even Donald Trump acknowledged this, saying, and I quote: ‘As a war, you’re supposed to get approval from Congress.’”
Rep. Brian Mast (R-Florida), chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said Meeks was being “hypocritical” and argued that President Joe Biden had been “engaged against Iran” because of an “imminent threat” of attacks — the same reason the Trump White House has given for military action.
Trump, Mast said, is “defending against an imminent threat” of nuclear warfare from Iran. He accused his Democratic colleagues of “not paying attention to national security at all.”
A procedural vote on a war powers resolution in the Republican-led Senate failed 52-47 on Wednesday in a vote that broke largely along party lines.
An earlier attempt at a war powers resolution failed narrowly in the House last month, with two House Republicans voting for it and four Democrats opposing it.
Meeks told reporters this week that some Republican members had been contemplating backing the resolution. But ultimately not enough support materialized. Meeks said it was important regardless to get lawmakers on the record about the war.
The War Powers Resolution of 1973 — the law Democrats used to force the votes — requires presidents to remove U.S. forces from any conflict that Congress has not authorized within 60 days. Trump can obtain a 30-day extension if he certifies that it is an “unavoidable military necessity.”
Trump predicted shortly after the war started that it would be over within four or five weeks, but the 60-day deadline, which arrives May 1, is rapidly approaching. Meeks on Tuesday noted that the White House is also going to “have to come to Congress for the money” soon — a reference to an expected request from the White House for additional funding to continue military action against Iran.
Theodoric Meyer contributed to this report.
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