WASHINGTON — In a landmark bipartisan rebuke of the Trump administration’s foreign policy, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a binding resolution on Wednesday that would compel President Donald Trump to pull all U.S. military forces out of the ongoing war with Iran and require explicit congressional authorization for any future military action against the country.
The final vote tally stood at 215 in favor to 208 opposed, with four House Republicans breaking ranks to join every Democratic member in supporting the measure. This vote marks the most significant pushback against Trump’s management of the months-long conflict to date. The war has already resulted in the deaths of more than a dozen U.S. military service members, claimed the lives of thousands of Iranian civilians, and wreaked havoc on global commodity supply chains. Blockades of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global shipping chokepoint, have disrupted international flows of both oil and fertilizer, driving up global market prices.
This resolution, which leverages Congress’s constitutional War Powers authority to limit executive branch ability to initiate or escalate military engagements, narrowly failed to pass the House just one month prior, deadlocking at a 212-212 tie vote.
While parallel measures in the U.S. Senate have previously failed to advance, the political landscape shifted recently after Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy lost his party’s primary election. Cassidy has since joined Senate Democrats and a small group of fellow Senate Republicans to advance the Iran War Powers resolution, though a final floor vote on full passage has not yet been scheduled.
The House resolution was sponsored by Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, the ranking Democratic member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. In a separate legislative action, Michigan Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib has introduced an additional War Powers resolution that would force the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Lebanon, where Israel – backed by U.S. weapons and funding – has launched a large-scale military offensive.
The passage of the Iran resolution, achieved even in a House controlled by the Republican Party, underscores the growing intraparty dissent against President Trump’s policies among congressional Republicans.
In a separate development highlighting rifts within the party, Senate Republicans have rejected a Trump administration proposal to create a $1.8 billion compensation fund for individuals who claim they were wrongfully prosecuted by the U.S. Department of Justice. The fund would have covered individuals convicted for their role in the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol who were later pardoned by Trump. Following the opposition, the administration pulled back from the proposal, after disputes over the fund derailed progress on broader legislation to fund immigration and deportation operations for the remainder of Trump’s second term.