House Passes Iran War-Powers Resolution 220–204; Seven Republicans Break With Trump

The House on Tuesday night passed a war-powers resolution that would require President Donald Trump to remove U.S. forces from hostilities in Iran except those needed to defend the United States or its allies from imminent attack.

The roll call was 220–204. All 213 voting Democrats backed the measure. Seven Republicans crossed over: Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Warren Davidson of Ohio, Tom Barrett of Michigan, Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa, Zach Nunn of Iowa, and Nancy Mace of South Carolina. Opponents were 203 Republicans and Rep. Kevin Kiley of California, who caucuses with the GOP.

It was the third time this year the House has passed similar language. Four of the seven Republicans had voted yes on earlier versions. Mace, Miller-Meeks, and Nunn were new. The Senate approved a related resolution in June. No version has reached the president’s desk. Trump has signaled a veto.

Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., sponsored the text taken up Tuesday. House Foreign Affairs ranking member Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., told the floor that Congress had not authorized a war with Iran and that the administration had kept troops “in harm’s way, without a declaration of war, without an authorization from Congress and without any plan for how to win or end the war.”

Nunn, an Air Force veteran who has flown combat hours over the Middle East, said Iowa had already paid a price, including two service members killed by an Iranian drone in Kuwait. “With the negotiating window closed, sustained combat operations now require congressional authorization,” he said. “I will not support another open-ended war.”

Barrett told Fox News Digital he had been consistent since the statutory 60-day clock under the War Powers Resolution of 1973 ran out. “It’s up to Congress to prevent another endless American war,” he said.

House Foreign Affairs Chairman Brian Mast, R-Fla., defended the commander in chief. He said Trump is ending “forever wars” and asked which regional assets Democrats wanted pulled while Iran still threatens shipping and U.S. forces. Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., said the president had done “what he promised the American people, that he wasn’t going to let them have a nuclear weapon.”

The conflict that began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Feb. 28 is now in its seventh month. Public tallies cited in congressional debate put U.S. deaths at 18 and wounded at more than 800, with more than 50,000 American troops still in the theater. Cost estimates released to Congress put the bill in the high tens of billions of dollars, with interceptor magazines running down.

The same afternoon, Massie introduced eight privileged articles of impeachment against War Secretary Pete Hegseth. The first three charge unauthorized war, defiance of a congressional withdrawal directive, and remaining in hostilities past the War Powers clock. Other articles cite a strike on Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab, operations tied to Nicolás Maduro, and Yemen’s Operation Rough Rider. A privileged resolution must be taken up within two legislative days. The House is scheduled to leave town later this week. Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said the department is “unified behind the Secretary’s vision.”

Vice President JD Vance, in a New York Post interview conducted Monday, described the campaign in two phases. “The first phase is done,” he said — nuclear program, conventional forces, and the ability to project power. The second phase, he said, is to keep Iran from rebuilding and to hold regional stability. He agreed with Trump that the war would enter “a much different phase in a couple of months,” after the November midterms.

The resolution does not end the war by itself. Identical text must still clear the Senate, survive a veto fight, and then be enforced. What Tuesday established is the count: seven House Republicans are no longer willing to leave the Iran campaign on a presidential clock alone.