In a first, House votes to block Trump from ordering further strikes on Iran

WASHINGTON — The House passed a resolution Wednesday to block President Donald Trump from ordering further strikes on Iran, ratcheting up pressure on the administration to find a way to end the unpopular war.

The 215-208 vote marked the first time that such a measure has cleared the House or Senate on a final vote since the start of the conflict more than three months ago. The Senate advanced a similar resolution last month on a procedural vote, reflecting growing impatience with a war Congress has not authorized.

The effort faces sizable hurdles, however, before Congress could force Trump to end hostilities.

In the House, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, who recently kicked off a tough reelection campaign in a Bucks County district, was one of four Republicans who helped Democrats get the resolution over the finish line.

Fitzpatrick had voted with Democrats on the issue once before, on May 14, when the vote was tied and meant it would not pass. He previously supported Trump’s ability to wage the war, though he also had warned that the president should abide by an early May legal deadline that he and others argued required congressional approval to continue the effort.

Under a separate war powers resolution that Fitzpatrick introduced but has not received a vote, Trump would be required to begin a “phased withdrawal” of U.S. forces from the region. Exceptions would be allowed if the president determined the forces are necessary to defend against an “imminent attack, or prevent the procurement of a nuclear weapon.”

Fitzpatrick did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

“We are trapped in a war that won’t end because an incompetent president launched it thinking of only his own ego while failing to prepare for the consequences,” Rep. Gregory Meeks (D., N.Y.), the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, said during debate on the House floor. “Diplomacy is the only exit from this, not more bombing, not more bluster.”

Democrats have forced repeated votes on war powers resolutions in both chambers since the start of the conflict, which polling shows is unpopular. A New York Times-Siena College poll conducted in mid-May found that 64% of registered voters think Trump made the wrong decision in going to war; 30% believe he made the right decision.

The War Powers Resolution of 1973 — the law Democrats used to force the vote — requires presidents to remove U.S. forces from any conflict that Congress has not authorized within 60 days. Trump hit the deadline May 1 but dodged it by arguing that hostilities have been “terminated” since a ceasefire took effect, even as the United States continues to enforce a naval blockade of Iran.

Rep. Brian Mast (R., Fla.), chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, echoed Trump’s argument that the war is effectively over.

“We are not in hostilities,” he said. “We are out there with almost the exact same number of forces that we continually keep in the region.”

To reach Trump’s desk, the Senate resolution would require a final vote in the chamber, which could be tough if every senator is voting. Three Republican senators who have opposed similar resolutions in the past missed the procedural vote on the Senate resolution last month, allowing it to advance. If they had voted the way they had in the past, it would have failed 50-50.

The House would also need to pass the Senate version before it reached Trump’s desk. Trump would almost certainly veto it, forcing the Senate and the House to override his veto with a two-thirds vote in both chambers before the resolution could take effect. No war powers resolution has ever overcome a veto.

Unlike the Senate resolution, the House version cannot be vetoed, but it is unclear whether it is privileged, guaranteeing that it gets a vote in the Senate. If the Senate parliamentarian rules that it is not, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.) could decline to bring it up for a vote.

There is also considerable dispute about whether the House resolution would have the force of law if it passed both chambers.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D., Va.), who has spearheaded the effort to force war powers votes in the Senate, has said that Congress passing a resolution could put pressure on Trump to negotiate an end to the conflict, even if the president vetoed it and Congress was unable to override it.

While testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Congress passing a resolution would make Iranians less likely to come to the negotiating table.

“Iranians have misunderstood it in the past,” Rubio told Rep. Michael Lawler (R., N.Y.). “They think that if this thing passes, that means the president will not be able to come after us so he no longer has any leverage.”

Rubio said the vote makes Iranian negotiators think that “somehow” the Trump administration’s hands “are going to be tied and we won’t be able to do anything to them, so why make a deal?”

The House resolution had been widely expected to pass last month, but GOP leaders pulled the measure at the last minute in an effort to flip Republican votes during a recently concluded recess for the chamber.

Thune said last month that the course of the war with Iran would influence whether more Republican senators come out against it, as the administration negotiates with Tehran even as Trump contemplates more strikes.

“Our members are — and rightly so — asking the right questions and trying to figure out what the strategy is going forward,” Thune told reporters.

The House is also scheduled this week to consider a separate war powers resolution, introduced by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.), that would stop the Trump administration from joining Israel’s war in Lebanon. That measure, however, faces steeper odds, given fractured support within the Democratic Party.

Staff writer Sam Janesch contributed to this article.