The House on Thursday approved a resolution to remove U.S. forces from hostilities with Iran, in a vote that reflected growing frustration inside Congress over the war and the ability of lawmakers to conduct oversight.
The resolution passed the House by a vote of 214 to 208. And while it is not legally binding, the resolution represents a symbolic rebuke to President Trump over a war that lawmakers never voted to authorize. It was the second such rebuke passed by the House since the start of the war.
Shortly after the House vote, Senate Democrats tried to advance a war powers resolution of their own, but the measure failed 47 to 49.
The votes came at a moment when attacks between Iran and the U.S. appear to be intensifying. Eighteen U.S. troops have died since fighting broke out in February, but four have died since July 17. U.S. forces have also suffered nearly 500 injuries, with 100 of those coming in the past two weeks, according to the Pentagon.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., who led the effort in the House, said the vote sends President Trump a clear message that Congress will not continue to tolerate what she described as an “illegal war.”
“From the beginning, this war has had no clear mission, no strategy, no end goal. Congress has not been consulted,” Jayapal said following the vote. “And hostilities have been driven over and over again by a president who won his election by promising to end forever wars.”
Four Republicans joined Democrats to approve the measure: Tom Barrett of Michigan, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Ohio’s Warren Davidson and Thomas Massie of Kentucky.
Republicans who opposed the resolution have defended the war as necessary, given Iran’s past attacks on Americans and U.S. interests in the region.
During debate on the House floor on Wednesday, the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Brian Mast of Florida, held up photos of U.S. service members killed in the war.
“To belittle this mission is to belittle and demean the very service these members gave their life for,” Mast said. “This operation is bringing reckoning for the hundreds of times Iran has attacked and killed people of the United States of America,” he continued.
Last month, the Senate also approved a war powers resolution, only to reverse course on a separate resolution brought the following day after President Trump criticized the initial vote. The president has referred to the war power votes as “meaningless” and a reflection of Democrats “fueled by Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
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