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The US House of Representatives voted Thursday to reject a Democratic measure that would have forced President Donald Trump to seek congressional approval before continuing military operations against Iran, dealing another blow to efforts to reassert legislative oversight over the six-week conflict.
The largely party-line vote, one Republican backed the resolution and another abstained, while one Democrat voted against it, followed a similar failed effort in the Senate a day earlier. Democratic leaders in both chambers have vowed to keep pressing the issue.
The measure invoked the 1973 War Powers Resolution, which limits a president's authority to conduct prolonged military hostilities without congressional consent. Democrats argue Trump launched joint military operations with Israel on February 28 without the constitutional authorization required, as the Constitution grants Congress sole power to declare war.
Despite the defeat, Democrats noted they had narrowed the margin from a previous House vote in March, when a comparable resolution failed by seven votes. Party leaders framed the repeated attempts as politically necessary, arguing that even losing votes force lawmakers to go on the record.
Unease over the conflict has continued to spread on Capitol Hill, with lawmakers expressing concern over rising costs, an undefined endgame and the prospect of a wider regional war. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, urged colleagues to act, warning that "every day we delay, we inch closer to a conflict with no exit ramp."
The financial burden of the war has emerged as a flashpoint. At congressional hearings Wednesday and Thursday, White House budget director Russ Vought declined to estimate the total taxpayer cost of operations and would not confirm a Democratic Senate Budget Committee estimate, advanced by Sen. Jeff Merkley, that the figure had already reached roughly $50 billion.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries sharpened the domestic political contrast, arguing the war was "costing the American people, taxpayers, billions of dollars a day" at a moment when Republicans were simultaneously pursuing cuts to healthcare programs.
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Trump has maintained broad Republican support in Congress, though frustration has quietly mounted among some members over the administration's refusal to publicly account for the military and financial costs of the campaign. The thin but notable defections in Thursday's vote, one Republican in favor and another abstaining, suggested that unity, while intact, is not absolute.
The War Powers Resolution, enacted in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, was designed to prevent presidents from sustaining military engagements without legislative buy-in. Its use has been repeatedly contested by administrations of both parties, and Congress has rarely succeeded in deploying it to halt an ongoing military operation.
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