The House of Representatives on June 3 passed a War Powers resolution that would, if enacted, compel President Donald Trump to remove all U.S. forces from hostilities against Iran. The measure, approved under the 1973 War Powers Resolution, passed with four Republicans joining the Democratic majority. Under the chamber’s rules, the resolution is a concurrent resolution that expresses Congress’s sense but does not have the force of law and does not require the president’s signature to take effect.
The Senate had voted 50-47 several weeks earlier to advance its own version of the legislation, according to a report in The Guardian. A final Senate vote has not yet been scheduled. Unlike earlier failed attempts to restrain Trump’s military authority, both the House and Senate votes drew support from some Republican lawmakers — a dynamic that analysts say reflects the war’s growing unpopularity and flagging public confidence in the administration’s handling of the conflict.
President Trump responded to the House vote on June 4 with a post on his Truth Social platform. “Yesterday, in a meaningless vote, the House voted, 4 bad Republicans and all of the Dumocrats, to limit my War Powers, right in the middle of my final negotiations to end the War with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he wrote. “Who would do such an unpatriotic thing.”
The House vote is the most recent in a series of congressional actions on the Iran war. Earlier this year, the House narrowly defeated a similar War Powers resolution in March, and the Senate has voted down multiple bills aimed at halting hostilities. The shift in sentiment came after the conflict expanded beyond the initial U.S. airstrikes, drawing Iran into a broader fight that has included attacks on American bases and allies in the Gulf region and Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which at least a fifth of global oil and natural gas supplies transit.
Thirteen U.S. service members have been killed in the fighting, according to The Guardian. The price of energy, fertilizer, jet fuel, helium, and diesel have surged, and the International Monetary Fund has warned of a potential global recession if the war continues.
Public opinion has turned sharply against the conflict. A June 4 Economist/YouGov poll found that 68% of Americans want a deal with Iran that ends the fighting quickly. The poll was cited by The Guardian in its report on the House vote.
Some Republican lawmakers who support the war have complained publicly about the administration’s failure to provide basic information about operations, while others have voiced concern that the conflict is depleting stocks of precision munitions and air defense systems that will take years to replace, according to The Guardian.
The non-binding nature of the concurrent resolution means it would not legally constrain Trump’s ability to conduct military operations in Iran even if it were to pass the Senate. But analysts say the political signal is significant: the defections from Trump’s own party highlight his diminished standing at home and reduce his leverage in negotiations with Tehran.
The White House has not indicated whether it would comply with the resolution if it were to pass both chambers. Trump has previously used floor pressure to try to keep Republicans in line; in January, when five Republican senators voted to advance a motion restricting his authority to order military strikes in Venezuela, he named them publicly and said they “should never be elected to office again.” Two of those senators later reversed their positions, and the measure failed.
Observers say the dynamics are different this time. The war in Iran has been far costlier than the brief Venezuela operation, and Trump faces a midterm election in November in which the conflict and its economic fallout are expected to be central issues. Lawmakers from both parties, according to The Guardian, fear a backlash at the polls if they are seen as having failed to restrain the president.